THE 


'      ' 


Acres  of  T> 
140  1'  It*. 

Long  ''bwb  2   Calif. 


Wednesday  the  Tenth, 

A  TALE   OF 
THE   SOUTH   PACIFIC 


GRANT   ALLEN 


Author  of 

Common  Sense  Science 
and  others 


BOSTON 

D    LOTHROP    COMPANY 

WASHINGTON    STREET   OPPOSITE    BROMFIELD 


COPYRIGHT,  1890, 

BY 
D.  LOTHROP  COMPANY. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

WE   SIGHT    A    BOAT  ....  .  9 

CHAPTER   II. 
THE  BOAT'S  CREW        ....  .27 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED.  ...  .4! 

CHAPTER   IV. 
MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY     ...  56 

CHAPTER   V. 

A    BREAK-DOWN      .....  .      '         ?2 

CHAPTER   VI. 

ON   THE   ISLAND    .....  86 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ERRORS    EXCEPTED  ....  IOO 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

HOT  WORK    ......  113 


2212571 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 

There  was  a  terrible  scene  of  noise  and  confusion  Front. 

Where  the  Frenchmen  landed      ....  19 

Natives  of  the  Island  of  Tanaki  ....  58 

The  savages  fell  back  and  listened  with  eagerness  70 


WEDNESDAY  THE  TENTH. 

A  Tale  of  the  South  Pacific. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

ON  the  eighteenth  day  out  from  Sydney,  we 
were  cruising  under  the  lee  of  Erro- 
manga  —  of  course  you  know  Erromanga,  an 
isolated  island  between  the  New  Hebrides  and 
the  Loyalty  group  —  when  suddenly  our  dusky 
Polynesian  boy,  Nassaline,  who  was  at  the  mast- 
head on  the  lookout,  gave  a  surprised  cry  of 
"  Boat  ahoy !  "  and  pointed  with  his  skinny  black 
finger  to  a  dark  dot  away  southward  on  the 
horizon,  in  the  direction  of  Fiji. 

I  strained  my  eyes  and  saw  —  well,  a  barrel 
or  something.     For  myself,  I  should  never  have 
9 


10  WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

made  out  it  was  a  boat  at  all,  being  somewhat 
slow  of  vision  at  great  distances  ;  but,  bless 
your  heart !  these  Kanaka  lads  have  eyes  like 
hawks  for  pouncing  down  upon  a  canoe  or  a 
sail  no  bigger  than  a  speck  afar  off ;  so  when 
Nassaline  called  out  confidently,  "  Boat  ahoy  !  " 
in  his  broken  English,  I  took  out  my  binocular, 
and  focused  it  full  on  the  spot  towards  which 
the  skinny  black  finger  pointed.  Probably, 
thought  I  to  myself,  a  party  of  natives,  painted 
red,  on  the  war-trail  against  their  enemies  in 
some  neighboring  island  ;  or  perhaps  a  "  labor 
vessel,"  doing  a  veiled  slave-trade  in  "indent- 
ured apprentices"  for  New  Caledonia  or  the 
Queensland  planters. 

To  my  great  surprise,  however,  I  found  out, 
when  I  got  my  glasses  fixed  full  upon  it,  it 
was  neither  of  these,  but  an  open  English  row- 
boat,  apparently,  making  signs  of  distress,  and 
alone  in  the  midst  of  the  wide  Pacific. 

Now,  mind  you,  one  doesn't  expect  to  find 
open  English  row-boats  many  miles  from  land, 


WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT.  II 

drifting  about  casually  in  those  far-eastern 
waters.  There's  very  little  European  shipping 
there  of  any  sort,  I  can  tell  you ;  a  man  may 
sometimes  sail  for  days  together  across  that 
trackless  sea  without  so  much  as  speaking  a 
single  vessel,  and  the  few  he  does  come  across 
are  mostly  engaged  in  what  they  euphoniously 
call  "  the  labor-trade  "  —  in  plain  English,  kid- 
naping blacks  or  browns,  who  are  induced  to 
sign  indentures  for  so  many  years'  service  (gen- 
erally "three  yams,"  that  is  to  say,  for  three 
yam  crops),  and  are  then  carried  off  by  force  or 
fraud  to  some  other  island,  to  be  used  as  labor- 
ers in  the  cane-fields  or  cocoa-nut  groves.  So 
I  rubbed  my  eyes  when  I  saw  an  open  boat,  of 
European  build,  tossing  about  on  the  open,  and 
sang  out  to  the  man  at  the  wheel : 

"  Hard  a  starboard,  Tom  !  Put  her  head 
about  for  the  dark  spot  to  the  sou'-by-southeast 
there  ! " 

"  Starboard  it  is  J "  Tom  Blake  answered 
cheerily,  setting  the  rudder  about ;  and  we 


12  WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

headed  straight  for  that  mysterious  little  craft 
away  off  on  the  horizon. 

But  there  !  I  see  I've  got  ahead  of  my  story, 
to  start  with,  as  the  way  is  always  with  us  salt- 
water sailors.  We  seafaring  men  can  never 
spin  a  yarn,  turned  straight  off  the  reel  all 
right  from  the  beginning,  like  some  of  those 
book-making  chaps  can  do.  We  have  always 
to  luff  round  again,  and  start  anew  on  a  fresh 
tack  half  a  dozen  times  over,  before  we  can  get 
well  under  way  for  the  port  we're  aiming  at. 
So  I  shall  have  to  go  back  myself  to  Sydney 
once  more,  to  explain  who  we  were,  and  how 
we  happened  to  be  cruising  about  on  the  loose 
that  morning  off  Erromanga. 

My  name,  if  I  may  venture  to  introduce  my- 
self formally,  is  Julian  Braithwaite.  I  am  the 
owner  and  commander  of  the  steam-yacht 
Albatross,  thirty-nine  tons  burden,  as  neat  a 
little  craft  as  any  on  the  Pacific,  though  it's  me 
that  says  it  as  oughtn't  to  say  it ;  and  I've 
spent  the  last  five  years  of  my  life  in  cruising  in 


WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT.  13 

and  out  among  those  beautiful  archipelagos  in 
search  of  health,  which  nature  denies  me  in 
more  northern  latitudes.  The  oddest  part  of  it 
is,  though  I'm  what  the  doctors  call  consump- 
tive in  England  —  only  fit  to  lie  on  a  sofa  and 
read  good  books —  the  moment  I  get  clear  away 
into  the  Tropics  I'm  a  strong  man  again,  pre- 
pared to  fight  any  fellow  of  my  own  age  and 
weight,  and  as  fit  for  seamanship  as  the  best 
Jack  Tar  in  my  whole  equipment.  The  Alba- 
tross numbers  eighteen  in  crew,  all  told ;  and  as 
I  am  not  a  rich  enough  or  selfish  enough  a  man 
to  keep  up  a  vessel  all  for  my  own  amusement, 
my  brother  Jim  and  I  combine  business  and 
pleasure  by  doing  a  mixed  trade  in  copra  or 
dried  cocoa-nut  with  the  natives  from  time  to 
time,  or  by  running  across  between  Sydney  and 
San  Francisco  with  a  light  cargo  of  goods  for 
the  Australian  market. 

Our  habit  was  therefore  to  cruise  in  and  out 
among  the  islands,  with  no  very  definite  aim 
except  that  of  picking  up  a  stray  trade  when- 


14  WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

ever  we  could  make  one,  and  keeping  as  much 
within  sight  of  land,  for  the  sake  of  company,  as 
circumstances  permitted  us.  And  that  is  just 
why,  though  bound  for  Fiji,  we  had  gone  so  far 
out  of  our  way  that  particular  voyage  as  to  be 
under  the  lee  of  Erromanga. 

As  for  our  black  Polynesian  boy,  Nassaline, 
to  tell  you  the  truth,  I  am  proud  of  that  lad,  for 
he's  a  trophy  of  war;  we  got  him  at  the  point 
of  the  sword  off  a  slaver.  She  was  a  fast 
French  sloop,  "recruiting"  for  New  Caledonia, 
as  they  call  it,  on  one  of  the  New  Hebrides, 
when  the  Albatross  happened  to  come  to  anchor, 
by  good  luck  or  good  management,  in  the  same 
harbor.  From  the  moment  we  arrived  I  had 
my  eye  on  that  smart  French  sloop,  for  I  more 
than  half  suspected  the  means  she  was  employ- 
ing to  beat  up  recruits.  Early  next  morning,  as 
I  lay  in  my  bunk,  I  heard  a  fearful  row  going 
on  in  boats  not  far  from  our  moorings  ;  and 
when  I  rushed  up  on  deck,  half-dressed,  to  find 
out  what  the  noise  was  about,  blessed  if  I 


WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT.  15 

didn't  see  whole  gangs  of  angry  natives  in 
canoes,  naked  of  course  as  the  day  they  were 
born,  or  only  dressed,  like  the  Ancient  Britons, 
in  a  neat  coat  of  paint,  pursuing  the  French 
sloop's  jolly-boat,  which  was  being  rowed  at 
high  pressure  by  all  its  crew  toward  its  own  ves- 
sel. "Great  guns!"  said  I,  "what's  up?"  So, 
looking  closer,  I  could  make  out  four  strapping 
young  black  boys  lying  manacled  in  the  bottom, 
kicking  and  screaming  as  hard  as  their  legs  and 
throats  could  go,  while  the  Frenchmen  rowed 
away  for  dear  life,  and  the  Kanakas  in  the 
canoes  paddled  wildly  after  them,  taking  cock- 
shots  at  them  with  very  bad  aim  from  time  to 
time  with  arrows  and  fire-arms.  Such  a  splutter 
and  noise  you  never  heard  in  all  your  life. 
Ducks  fighting  in  a  pond  were  a  mere  circum- 
stance to  it. 

"  Tom  Blake  !  "  I  sang  out,  "  is  the  gig  afloat 
there  ? " 

"  Aye,  aye,  sir,"  says  Tom,  jumping  up.  "  She's 
ready  at  the  starn.  Shall  we  off  and  at  'em  ? " 


l6  WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

"  Right  you  are,  Tom !  "  says  I ;  "  all  hands 
to  the  gig  here  ! " 

Well,  in  less  than  three  minutes  I'd  got  that 
boat  under  way,  and  was  rowing  ahead  between 
the  Frenchmen  and  their  sloop,  with  our  Rem- 
ingtons ready,  and  everything  in  order  for  a 
good  stand-up  fight  of  it. 

When  the  Frenchmen  saw  we  meant  to  inter- 
cept them,  and  found  themselves  cut  off  between 
the  savages  on  one  side  and  an  English  crew 
well-armed  with  rifles  of  precision  on  the  other, 
they  thought  it  was  about  time  to  open  negotia- 
tions with  the  opposing  party.  So  the  skipper 
stopped,  as  airy  as  a  gentleman  walking  down 
the  Boulevards,  and  called  out  to  me  in  French, 
"  What  do  you  want  ahoy,  there  ?  " 

"  Ahoy  there  yourself,"  says  I,  in  my  very 
best  Ollandorff.  "  We  want  to  know  what 
you're  doing  with  those  youngsters  ?  " 

"Oh!  it's  that,  is  it?"  says  the  Frenchman, 
as  cool  as  a  cucumber,  coming  nearer  a  bit,  and 
talking  as  though  we'd  merely  stopped  him  with 


WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT.  17 

polite  inquiries  about  the  time  of  day  or  the 
price  of  spring  chickens ;  while  the  savages, 
seeing  from  our  manner  we  were  friendly  to 
their  side,  left  off  firing  for  a  while  for  fear  of 
hitting  us.  "  Why,  these  are  apprentices  of 
ours  —  indentured  apprentices.  We've  bought 
them  from  their  parents  by  honest  trade  —  paid 
for  'em  with  Sniders,  ammunition,  calico  and 
tobacco ;  and  if  you  want  to  see  our  papers  and 
theirs,  Monsieur,  here  they  are,  look  you,  all 
perfectly  en  regie"  and  he  held  up  the  bundle  for 
us  to  inspect  in  full  —  with  a  telescope,  I  sup- 
pose —  at  a  hundred  yards'  distance. 

"  Row  nearer,  boys,"  I  said,  "  and  we'll  talk 
a  bit  with  this  polite  gentleman.  He  seems  to 
have  views  of  his  own,  I  fancy,  about  the  proper 
method  of  engaging  servants." 

But  when  we  tried  to  row  up  the  Frenchman 
stopped  and  called  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice, 
in  a  very  different  tone,  all  bustle  and  bluster, 
"  Look  out  ahead  there  !  If  you  come  a  yard 
closer  we  open  fire.  We  want  no  interference 


1 8  WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

from  any  of  you  Methodistical  missionary 
fellows." 

"We  ain't  missionaries,"  I  answered  quietly, 
cocking  my  revolver  in  the  friendliest  possible 
fashion  right  in  front  of  him ;  "  we're  traders 
and  yachtsmen.  Show  'em  your  Remingtons, 
boys,  and  let  'em  see  we  mean  business !  That's 
right.  Ready  !  present !  —  and  fire  when  I  tell 
you !  Now  then.  Monsieur,  you  bought  these 
boys,  you  say.  So  far,  good.  Next  then,  if  you 
please,  who  did  you  buy  them  from  ?  "  v 

The  Frenchman  turned  pale  when  he  saw 
we  were  well-armed  and  meant  inquiry ;  but  he 
tried  to  carry  off  still  with  a  little  face  and 
bluster.  "Why,  their  parents,  of  course,"  he 
answered,  with  a  signal  to  his  friends  in  the 
ship  to  cover  us  with  their  fire-arms. 

"  From  their  parents  ?  O,  yes !  Well,  how 
did  you  know  the  sellers  were  their  parents?" 
I  asked,  still  pointing  my  revolver  towards  him. 
"  And  why  are  the  boys  so  unwilling  to  go  ? 
And  what  are  the  natives  making  such  a  noise 


WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT.  19 

over  this  little  transaction  in  indentured  labor 
for  ?  If  it's  all  as  you  say,  what's  this  fuss  and 
row  about  ?  Keep  your  rifles  steady,  lads." 

"  They  want  to  back  out  of  their  bargain,  I 
suppose,  now  they've  drunk  our  rum  and 
smoked  our  tobacco,"  the  Frenchman  said. 

"No  true,  no  true,"  one  of  the  natives 
shouted  out  from  beyond  in  his  broken  English. 
"Man  a  otti-oui!"  —  that's  what  they  call  the 
French,  you  know,  all  through  the  South  Pacific 
—  "man  a  oui-oui,  bad  —  no  believe  man,  a  oui- 
oui —  him  make  us  drunk,  so  try  to  cheat  us." 

"Now,  you  look  here,  Monsieur,"  I  said 
severely,  turning  to  the  skipper,  "  I  know  what 
you've  been  doing.  I've  seen  this  little  game 
tried  on  before.  You  landed  here  last  night 
with  your  peaceable  equipment  for  recruiting 
labor  —  we  know  what  that  means  —  a  Win- 
chester sixteen-shooter  and  half  a  dozen  pairs 
of  English  handcuffs.  You  brought  on  shore 
your  'trade'  —  a  common  clay  pipe  or  two, 
some  cheap  red  cloth,  and  a  lot  of  bad  French 


20  WE   SIGHT   A   BOAT. 

Government  tobacco ;  and  you  treated  the 
natives  all  round  to  free  drinks  of  your  square 
gin.  When  they'd  reached  that  state  of  conven- 
ient conviviality  that  they  didn't  know  who  they 
were  or  what  they  were  doing,  you  took  advan- 
tage of  their  guileless  condition.  You  picked 
out  the  likeliest  young  men  and  lads,  selected 
any  particularly  drunken  native  lying  about  loose 
to  represent  their  fathers,  made  'em  put  their 
marks  to  a  formal  paper  of  indentures,  and 
handed  over  twenty  dollars,  a  bottle  of  rum, 
and  a  quid  of  tobacco,  as  a  consolation  for  the 
wounded  feelings  of  their  distressed  relations. 
You've  been  carrying  them  off  all  night  at  your 
devil's  game ;  and  now  in  the  morning  the 
natives  are  beginning  to  wake  up  sober,  miss 
their  friends,  and  put  a  summary  stop  to  your 
little  proceedings.  Well,  sir,  I  give  you  one 
minute  to  make  up  your  mind ;  if  you  don't 
hand  us  over  these  four  lads  to  set  on  shore 
again,  we'll  open  fire  upon  you ;  and  as  we're 
stronger  than  you,  with  the  natives  at  our  back, 


WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT.  21 

we'll  make  a  prize  of  you,  and  tow  you  into  Fiji 
on  a  charge  of  slave-trading." 

Before  the  words  were  well  out  of  my  mouth 
the  French  skipper  had  given  the  word  "  Fire  !  " 
and  the  bullets  came  whizzing  past,  and  riddling 
the  gunwale  of  the  gig  beside  us.  One  of  them 
grazed  my  arm  below  the  shoulder  and  drew 
blood.  Now  there's  nothing  to  put  a  man's 
temper  up  like  getting  shot  in  the  arm.  I  lost 
mine,  I  confess,  and  I  shouted  aloud,  "  Fire, 
boys,  and  row  on  at  them  ! "  Our  fellows  fired, 
and  the  very  same  moment  the  natives  closed 
in  and  went  at  them  with  their  canoes,  all  alive 
with  Sniders,  lances  and  hatchets.  It  was  a 
lively  time,  I  can  tell  you,  for  the  next  five  min- 
utes, with  those  lithe,  long  black  fellows  swarm- 
ing over  them  like  ants ;  and  poor  Tom  Blake 
got  a  bullet  from  a  French  rifle  in  his-  thigh, 
that  lodges  there  still  in  very  comfortable  quar- 
ters. But  one  of  the  Frenchmen  fell  back  in 
the  jolly-boat  shot  through  the  breast,  and  the 
skipper,  who  turned  out  to  be  a  fellow  with 


22  WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

one  sound  leg  and  a  substitute,  was  severely 
wounded.  So  we'd  soon  closed  in  upon  them, 
the  natives  and  ourselves,  and  overpowered  their 
crew,  which  was  only  ten,  all  told,  besides  the 
fellows  on  the  big  vessel  in  the  harbor. 

Well,  we  took  out  the  four  boys,  when  the 
mill  was  over,  and  transferred  them  to  our  gig  ; 
and  then  we  escorted  the  Frenchmen,  ironed  in 
their  own  handcuffs,  to  the  deck  of  their  sloop, 
with  the  natives  on  either  side  in  their  canoes 
rowing  along  abreast  of  us  like  a  guard  of 
honor.  The  crew  of  the  sloop  didn't  attempt 
to  interfere  with  us  as  we  brought  their  com- 
rades handcuffed  aboard ;  if  they  had,  why, 
then,  with  the  help  of  the  savages,  we  should 
have  been  more  than  a  match  for  them.  So  we 
prowled  around  the  ship  on  a  voyage  of  dis- 
covery, and  found  ample  evidence  in  her  get-up 
of  her  character  as  an  honest  and  single-hearted 
recruiter  of  labor.  A  rack  in  the  cabin  held 
eight  Snider  rifles,  loaded  for  use,  above  which 
hung  eight  revolvers,  employed  doubtless  in 


WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT.  23 

self-defense  against  the  lawless  character  of  the 
Kanakas,  as  the  skipper  (with  his  hands  in  irons 
and  his  eyes  in  tears)  most  solemnly  assured  us. 
The  sloop  was  prepared  throughout,  with  loop- 
holes and  battening-hatches,  to  stand  a  siege, 
and  could  have  made  short  work  of  the  natives 
alone  had  they  tried  to  attack  her,  for  she 
carried  a  small  howitzer,  not  so  big  as  our  own ; 
but  she  never  suspected  interference  from  a 
European  vessel.  We  went  down  into  her  hold, 
and  there  we  found  about  forty  natives,  men, 
women  and  children  —  free  agents  all,  the 
skipper  had  declared  —  packed  as  tight  as  her- 
rings in  a  barrel,  and  with  stench  intolerable  to 
the  European  nostril.  Such  a  sight  you  never 
saw  in  your  life.  There  they  lay  athwart  ship, 
side  by  side,  the  unhappy  black  cattle,  some 
handcuffed  and  manacled,  others  dead-drunk 
and  too  careless  to  complain,  while  the  women 
and  children  were  crying  and  screaming,  and 
the  men  were  shouting  as  loud  as  they  could 
shout  in  their  own  lingo. 


24  WE    SIGHT    A    BOAT. 

Fortunately,  we  had  a  sailor  aboard  the  Alba- 
tross who  had  been  a  beach-comber  (or  degraded 
white  man  who  lives  like  a  native)  for  three 
years  on  the  island  of  Ambrymon,  and  had  a 
Kanaka  girl  for  a  sweetheart ;  so  he  could  talk 
their  palaver  almost  as  easy  as  you  can  English, 
and  he  acted  as  interpreter  for  us  with  the  poor 
people  in  the  hold.  We  knocked  their  hand- 
cuffs off,  and  explained  the  situation  to  them. 
About  a  dozen  of  the  wretchedest  and  most 
squalid-looking  of  the  lot  were  prepared,  even 
when  we  offered  them  freedom,  to  stand  by  their 
last  night's  bargain,  and  go  on  to  New  Cale- 
donia ;  but  the  remainder  were  only  too  delighted 
to  learn  that  they  might  go  ashore  again ;  and 
they  gave  us  three  ringing  British  cheers  as  soon 
as  they  understood  we  had  really  liberated  them. 

As  for  the  four  boys  we'd  got  in  the  gig,  three 
of  them  elected  at  once  to  go  home  to  their  own 
people  on  the  island  ;  but  the  fourth  was  our 
present  black  servant,  Nassaline.  He,  poor 
boy,  was  an  orphan  ;  and  his  nearest  relations, 


WE    SIGHT   A    BOAT.  2£ 

having  held  a  consultation  the  day  before  whether 
they  should  bake  him  and  eat  him,  or  sell  him 
to  the  Frenchman,  had  decided  that  after  all  he 
would  be  worth  more  if  paid  for  in  tobacco  and 
rum  than  if  roasted  in  plantain-leaves.  So,  as 
soon  as  he  found  we  were  going  to  put  him  on 
shore  again,  the  poor  creature  was  afraid  after  all 
he  was  being  returned  for  the  oven  ;  and  fling- 
ing himself  on  his  face  in  the  gig,  groveling 
and  cringing,  he  took  hold  of  our  knees  and  be- 
sought us  most  piteously  (as  our  sailor  trans- 
lated his  words  for  us)  to  take  him  with  us. 
Of  course,  when  we  entered  into  the  spirit  of 
the  situation,  we  felt  it  was  impossible  to  send 
the  poor  fellow  back  to  be  made  "long  pig  "  of ; 
so,  to  his  immense  delight,  we  took  him  along, 
and  a  more  faithful  servant  no  man  ever  had 
than  poor  Nassaline  proved  from  that  day  forth 
to  me. 

I've  gone  out  of  my  way  so  far,  as  I  said  be- 
fore, to  tell  you  this  little  episode  of  life  in  the 
South  Pacific,  partly  in  order  to  let  you  know 


26  WE   SIGHT   A    BOAT. 

who  Nassaline  was  and  how  we  came  by  him ; 
but  partly  also  to  give  you  a  side  glimpse  of  the 
sort  of  gentry,  both  European  and  native,  one 
may  chance  to  knock  up  against  in  those  remote 
regions.  It'll  help  you  to  understand  the  rest  of 
my  yarn.  And  now,  if  you  please,  I'll  tack  back 
again  once  more  into  my  proper  course,  to  the 
spot  where  I  broke  off  in  sight  of  Erromanga. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    BOAT'S   CREW. 

PRESENTLY,  as  we  headed  towards  the 
black  object  on  the  horizon,  Nassaline 
stretched  out  that  skinny  finger  of  his  once 
more  (no  amount  of  feeding  ever  seemed  to 
make  Nassaline  one  ounce  fatter),  and  cried  out 
in  his  shrill  little  piping  voice,  "Two  man  on 
the  boat !  him  makey  signs  for  call  us  ! " 

I'd  give  anything  to  have  eyes  as  sharp  as 
those  Polynesians.  I  looked  across  the  sea, 
and  the  loppy  waves  in  the  foreground,  and 
could  just  make  out  with  the  naked  eye  that 
the  row-boat  had  something  that  looked  like  a 
red  handkerchief  tied  to  her  bare  mast,  and  a 
white  signal  flapping  in  the  wind  below  it ;  but 
not  a  living  soul  could  I  distinguish  in  her  with- 
27 


28  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

out  my  binocular.  So  I  put  up  my  glasses  and 
looked  again.  Sure  enough,  there  they  were, 
two  miserable  objects,  clinging  as  it  seemed 
half-dead  to  the  mast,  and  making  most  piteous 
signs  with  their  hands  to  attract  our  attention. 
As  soon  as  they  saw  that  we  had  really  sighted 
them,  and  were  altering  our  course  to  pick  them 
up,  their  joy  and  delight  knew  no  bounds,  as 
we  judged.  They  flung  up  their  arms  ecstati- 
cally into  the  air,  and  then  sank  back,  exhausted, 
as  I  guessed,  on  to  the  thwarts  where  they  had 
long  ceased  sitting  or  rowing. 

They  were  wearied  out,  I  imagined,  with  long 
buffeting  against  that  angry  and  immeasurable 
sea,  and  must  soon  have  succumbed  to  fatigue 
if  we  hadn't  caught  sight  of  them. 

We  put  on  all  steam,  as  in  duty  bound,  and 
made  towards  them  hastily.  By  and  by,  my 
brother  Jim,  who  had  been  off  watch,  came  up 
from  below  and  joined  me  on  deck  to  see  what 
was  going  forward.  At  the  same  moment  Nassa- 
line  cried  out  once  more,  "  Him  no  two  man  ! 


THE    BOAT  S   CREW.  29 

Him  two  boy  !  Two  English  boy  !  Him  hun- 
gry like  a  dying  !  "  And  as  he  spoke,  he  held 
his  own  skinny  bare  arm  up  to  his  mouth  dra- 
matically, and  took  a  good  bite  at  it,  as  if  to  in- 
dicate in  dumb  show  that  the  crew  of  the  boat 
were  now  almost  ready  to  eat  one  another. 

Jim  looked  through  the  glasses,  and  handed 
them  over  to  me  in  turn.  "  By  George,  Julian," 
he  said,  "  Nassaline's  right.  It's  a  couple  of 
boys,  and  to  judge  by  the  look  of  them,  they're 
not  far  off  starving !  " 

I  seized  the  glasses  and  fixed  them  upon  the 
boat.  We  were  getting  nearer  now,  and  could 
make  out  the  features  of  its  occupants  quite 
distinctly.  A  more  pitiable  sight  never  met  my 
eyes.  Her  whole  crew  consisted  of  two  white- 
faced  lads,  apparently  about  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  old,  dressed  in  loose  blue  cotton  shirts 
and  European  trousers,  but  horribly  pinched 
with  hunger  and  thirst,  and  evidently  so  weak 
as  to  be  almost  incapable  of  clinging  to  the  bare 
mast  whence  they  were  trying  to  signal  us. 


30  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

Now,  you  land-loving  folk  can  hardly  realize, 
I  dare  say,  what  such  an  incident  means  at  sea ; 
but  to  Jim  and  me,  who  had  sailed  the  lonely 
Pacific  together  for  five  years  at  a  stretch,  that 
pathetic  sight  was  full  both  of  horror  and  un- 
speakable mystery.  For  anybody,  even  grown 
men  long  used  to  the  ocean,  to  be  navigating  that 
awful  expanse  of  water  alone  in  an  empty  boat 
is  little  short  of  ghastly.  Just  think  what  it 
means  !  A  stormy  sheet  that  stretches  from 
the  north  pole  to  the  south  without  one  streak 
of  continuous  land  to  break  it ;  a  stormy  sheet 
on  which  the  winds  and  waves  may  buffet  you 
about  in  almost  any  direction  for  five  thousand 
miles,  with  only  the  stray  chance  of  some  remote 
oceanic  isle  to  drift  upon,  or  some  coral  reef  to 
swallow  you  up  with  its  gigantic  breakers.  But 
a  couple  of  boys  !  —  mere  children  almost !  — 
.alone,  and  starving,  on  that  immense  desert 
of  almost  untraveled  water !  On  the  Atlantic 
itself  your  chance  of  being  picked  up  from  open 
boats  by  a  passing  vessel  is  slight  enough, 


THE  BOAT'S  CREW.  31 

heaven  knows  !  but  on  the  Pacific,  where  ships 
are  few  and  routes  are  far  apart,  your  only 
alternative  to  starvation  or  foundering  is  to  find 
yourself  cast  on  the  tender  mercies  of  the  can- 
nibal Kanaka.  No  wonder  I  looked  at  Jim, 
and  Jim  looked  at  me,  and  each  of  us  saw  un- 
accustomed tears  standing  half  ashamed  in  the 
eyes  of  the  other. 

"  Stop  her !  "  I  cried.  "  Lower  the  gig,  Tom 
Blake  !  Jim,  we  must  go  ourselves  and  fetch 
these  poor  fellows." 

At  the  sound  of  my  bell  the  engineer  pulled 
up  the  Albatross  short  and  sharp,  with  admira- 
ble precision,  and  we  lowered  our  boat  to  go 
out  and  meet  them.  As  we  drew  nearer  and 
nearer  with  each  stroke  of  our  oars,  I  could  see 
still  more  plainly  to  what  a  terrible  pitch  of 
destitution  and  distress  these  poor  lads  had 
been  subjected  during  their  awful  journey. 
Their  cheeks  were  sunken,  and  their  eyes 
seemed  to  stand  back  far  in  the  hollow  sockets. 
Their  pallid  white  hands  hardly  clung  to  the 


32  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

mast  by  convulsive  efforts  with  hooked  fingerg. 
They  had  used  up  their  last  reserve  of  strength 
in  their  wild  efforts  to  attract  our  attention. 

I  thanked  heaven  it  was  Nassaline  who  kept 
watch  at  the  mast-head  when  they  first  hove  in 
sight.  No  European  eye  could  ever  have  dis- 
covered the  meaning  of  that  faint  black  speck 
upon  the  horizon.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  the 
sharp  vision  of  our  keen  Polynesian  friend, 
these  two  helpless  children  might  have  drifted 
on  in  their  frail  craft  for  ever,  till  they  wasted 
away  with  hunger  apd  thirst  under  the  broiling 
eye  of  the  hot  Pacific  noontide. 

We  pulled  alongside,  and  lifted  them  into 
the  gig.  As  we  reached  them,  both  boys  fell 
back  faint  with  fatigue  and  with  the  sudden 
joy  of  their  unexpected  deliverance.  "  Quick, 
quick,  Jim  !  your  flask  ! "  I  cried,  for  we  had 
brought  out  a  little  weak  brandy  and  water  on 
purpose.  "  Pour  it  slowly  down  their  throats 
—  not  to  fast  at  first  —  just  a  drop  at  a  time, 
for  fear  of  choking  them." 


THE  BOAT'S  CREW.  33 

Jim  held  the  youngest  boy's  head  on  his  lap, 
and  opened  those  parched  lips  of  his  that  looked 
as  dry  as  a  piece  of  battered  old  shoe-leather. 
The  tongue  lolled  out  between  the  open  teeth 
like  a  thirsty  dog's  at  midsummer,  and  was  hard 
and  rough  as  a  rasp  with  long  weary  watching. 
We  judged  the  lad  at  sight  to  be  twelve  years 
old  or  thereabouts.  Jim  put  the  flask  to  his 
lips,  and  let  a  few  drops  trickle  slowly  down  his 
burnt  throat.  At  touch  of  the  soft  liquid  the 
boy's  lips  closed  over  the  mouth  of  the  flask 
with  a  wild  movement  of  delight,  and  he  sucked 
in  eagerly,  as  you  may  see  a  child  in  arms  suck 
at  the  mouthpiece  of  its  empty  feeding-bottle. 
"  That's  well,"  I  said.  "  He's  all  right,  at  any 
rate.  As  long  as  he  has  strength  enough  to 
pull  at  the  flask  like  that,  we  shall  bring  him 
round  in  the  end  somehow." 

We  took  away  the  flask  as  soon  as  we  thought 
he'd  had  as  much  as  was  good  for  him  at  the 
time,  and  let  his  head  fall  back  once  more  upon 
Jim's  kindly  shoulder.  Now  that  the  first  wild 


34  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

flush  of  delight  at  their  rescue  was  fairly  over, 
a  reaction  had  set  in ;  their  nerves  and  muscles 
gave  way  simultaneously,  and  the  poor  lad  fell 
back,  half-fainting,  half-sleeping,  just  where  Jim 
with  his  fatherly  solicitude  chose  to  lay  him. 

Tom  Blake  and  I  turned  to  the  elder  lad. 
His  was  a  harder  and  more  desperate  case. 
Perhaps  he  had  tried  more  eagerly  to  save  his 
helpless  brother ;  perhaps  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility for  another's  life  had  weighed  heavier 
upon  him  at  his  age  — for  he  looked  fourteen  ; 
but  at  any  rate  he  was  well-nigh  dead  with  ex- 
posure and  exhaustion.  The  first  few  drops  we 
poured  down  his  throat  he  was  clearly  quite  un- 
able to  swallow.  They  gurgled  back  insensi- 
bly. Tom  Blake  took  out  his  handkerchief,  and 
tearing  off  a  strip,  soaked  it  in  brandy  and 
water  in  the  cup  end  of  the  flask ;  then  he 
gently  moistened  the  inside  of  the  poor  lad's 
mouth  and  throat  with  it,  till  at  last  a  faint 
swallowing  motion  was  set  up  in  the  gullet. 
At  that,  we  poured  down  some  five  drops  cau- 


THE  BOAT'S  CREW.  35 

tiously.  To  our  delight  and  relief  they  were 
slowly  gulped  down,  and  the  poor  white  mouth 
stood  agape  like  a  young  bird's  in  mute  appeal 
for  more  water  —  more  water. 

We  gave  him  as  much  as  we  dared  in  his  ex- 
isting state,  and  then  turned  to  the  boat  for 
some  clue  to  the  mystery. 

She  was  an  English-built  row-boat,  smart  and 
taut,  fit  for  facing  rough  seas,  and  carrying  a 
short,  stout  mast  amidships.  On  her  stern  we 
found  her  name  in  somewhat  rudely-painted 
letters,  Messenger  of  Peace :  Makilolo  in  Tanaki. 
Clearly  she  had  been  designed  for  mission  ser- 
vice among  the  islands,  and  the  last  words  which 
followed  her  title  must  be  meant  to  designate 
her  port,  or  the  mission  station.  But  what  that 
place  was  I  hadn't  a  notion. 

"Where's  Tanaki,  Tom  Blake?"  I  asked, 
turning  round,  for  Tom  had  been  navigating  the 
South  Seas  any  time  this  twenty  years,  and 
knew  almost  every  nook  aud  corner  of  the  wide 
Pacific,  from  Yokohama  to  Valparaiso. 


36  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

Tom  shifted  his  quid  from  one  cheek  to  the 
other  and  answered,  after  a  pause,  "  Dunno,  sir, 
I'm  sure.  Never  heerd  tell  of  Tanaki  in  all  my 
born  days ;  an'  yet  I  sorter  fancied,  too,  I 
knowed  the  islands." 

"There  are  no  signs  of  blood  or  fighting  in 
the  boat,"  I  said,  examining  it  close.  "  They 
can't  have  escaped  from  a  massacre,  anyhow." 
For  I  remembered  at  once  to  what  perils  the 
missionaries  are  often  exposed  in  these  remote 
islands  —  how  good  Bishop  Patteson  had  been 
murdered  at  Santa  Cruz,  and  how  the  natives 
had  broken  the  heads  of  Mason  and  Wood  at 
Erromanga  not  so  many  months  back,  in  cold 
blood,  out  of  pure  lust  of  slaughter. 

"But  they  must  have  run  away  in  an  awful 
hurry,"  Tom  Blake  added,  overhauling  the 
locker  of  the  boat,  "for,  see,  she  ain't  found; 
there  ain't  no  signs  of  food  or  anything  to  hold 
it  nowheres,  sir  ;  and  this  ere  little  can  must  'a' 
been  the  o'ny  thing  they  had  with  'em  for  water." 

He  was  quite  right.     The  boat  had  clearly 


THE  BOAT'S  CREW.  37 

put  to  sea  unprovisioned.  It  deepened  our 
horror  at  the  poor  lads'  plight  to  think  of  this 
further  aggravation  of  their  incredible  suffer- 
ings. For  days  they  must  have  tossed  in  hun- 
ger and  thirst  on  the  great  deep.  But  we  could 
only  wait  to  have  the  mystery  cleared  up  when 
the  lads  were  well  enough  to  explain  to  us  what 
had  happened.  Meanwhile  we  could  but  look 
and  wonder  in  silence  ;  and  indeed  we  had  quite 
enough  to  do  for  the  present  in  endeavoring  to 
restore  them  to  a  state  of  consciousness. 

"  Any  marks  on  their  clothes  ?  "  my  brother 
Jim  suggested,  with  practical  good  sense,  look- 
ing up  from  his  charge  as  we  rowed  back  toward 
the  Albatross,  with  the  Messenger  of  Peace  in  tow 
behind  us.  "  That  might  help  us  to  guess  who 
they  are,  and  where  they  hail  from." 

I  looked  close  at  the  belt  of  the  lads'  blue 
shirts.  On  the  elder's  I  read  in  a  woman's 
handwriting,  "  Martin  Luther  Macglashin,  6, 
'87."  The  younger  boy's  bore  in  the  same  hand 
the  corresponding  inscription,  "John  Knox  Mac- 


38  THE  BOAT'S  CREW. 

glashin,  6,  '86."  It  somehow  deepened  the 
tragedy  of  the  situation  to  come  upon  those 
simple  domestic  reminiscences  at  such  a 
moment. 

"Sons  of  a  Scotch  missionary,  apparently,"  I 
said,  as  I  read  them  out.  "  If  only  we  could 
find  where  their  father  was  at  work,  we  might 
manage  to  get  some  clue  to  this  mystery." 

"  We  can  look  him  up,"  Jim  answered,  "  when 
we  get  to  Fiji." 

We  rowed  back  in  silence  the  rest  of  the  way 
to  the  Albatross,  lifted  the  poor  boys  tenderly 
on  board,  and  laid  them  down  to  rest  on  our 
own  bunks  in  the  cabin.  Serang-Palo,  our 
Malay  cook,  made  haste  at  the  galleys  to  dress 
them  a  little  arrowroot  with  condensed  milk ; 
and  before  half  an  hour  the  younger  boy  was 
sitting  up  in  Jim's  arms  with  his  eyes  and  mouth 
wide  open,  craving  eagerly  for  the  nice  warm 
mess  we  were  obliged  to  dole  out  to  his  en- 
feebled stomach  in  sparing  spoonfuls,  and  with 
a  trifle  of  color  already  returning  to  his  pale 


THE  BOAT'S  CREW.  39 

cheeks.  He  was  too  ill  to  speak  yet  —  his 
brother  indeed  lay  even  now  insensible  on  the 
bunk  in  the  corner  —  but  as  soon  as  he  had  fin- 
ished the  small  pittance  of  arrowroot  which 
alone  we  thought  it  prudent  to  let  him  swallow 
at  present,  he  mustered  up  just  strength  enough 
to  gasp  out  a  few  words  of  solemn  inportance 
in  a  very  hollow  voice.  We  bent  over  him  to 
listen.  They  were  broken  words  we  caught, 
half  rambling  as  in  delirium,  but  we  heard 
them  distinctly  — 

"  Steer  for  Makilolo  .  .  .  Island  of  Tanaki 
.  .  .  Wednesday  the  tenth  .  .  .  Natives  will 
murder  them  .  .  .  My  mother  —  my  father  — 
Calvin — and  Miriam." 

Then  it  was  evident  he  could  not  say  another 
word.  He  sank  back  on  the  pillow  breathless 
and  exhausted.  The  color  faded  from  his  cheek 
once  more  as  he  fell  into  his  place.  I  poured 
another  spoonful  of  brandy  down  his  parched 
throat.  In  three  minutes  more  he  was  sleeping 
peacefully,  with  long  even  breath,  like  one  who 


40  THE    BOATS   CREW. 

hadn't  slept  for  nights  before  on  the  tossing 
ocean. 

I  looked  at  Jim  and  bit  my  lips  hard.  "  This 
is  indeed  a  fix,"  I  cried,  utterly  nonplussed. 
"  Where  on  earth,  I  should  like  to  know,  is  this 
island  of  Tanaki ! " 

"  Don't  know,"  said  Jim.  "  But  wherever  it 
is,  we've  got  to  get  there." 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    MYSTERY   SOLVED. 

WE  paused  for  a  while,  and  looked  at 
one  another's  faces  blankly. 

"Suppose,"  Jim  suggested  at  last,  "we  get 
out  the  charts  and  see  if  such  a  place  as  Tanaki 
is  marked  upon  them  anywhere." 

"  Right  you  are,"  says  I.  "  Overhaul  your 
maps,  and  when  found,  make  a  note  of." 

Well,  we  did  overhaul  them  for  an  hour  at  a 
stretch,  and  searched  them  thoroughly,  inch  by 
inch,  Jim  taking  one  sheet  of  the  Admiralty 
chart  for  the  South  Pacific,  and  I  the  other; 
but  never  a  name  could  we  find  remotely  resem- 
bling the  sound  or  look  of  Tanaki.  Tom 
Blake,  too,  was  positive,  as  he  put  it  himself, 
that  "  there  weren't  no  such  name,  not  in  the 


42  THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED. 

whole  thunderin'  Pacific,  nowheres."  So  after 
long  and  patient  search  we  gave  up  the  quest, 
and  determined  to  wait  for  further  particulars 
till  the  boys  had  recovered  enough  to  tell  us 
their  strange  story. 

Meanwhile,  it  was  clear  we  must  steer  some- 
where. We  couldn't  go  beating  wildly  up  and 
down  the  Pacific,  on  the  hunt  for  a  possibly 
non-existent  Tanaki,  allowing  the  Albatross  to 
drift  at  her  own  sweet  will  wherever  she  liked, 
pending  the  boys'  restoration  to  speech  and 
health.  So  the  question  arose  what  direction 
we  should  steer  in.  Jim  solved  that  problem  as 
easy  as  if  it  had  come  out  of  the  first  book 
of  Euclid  (he  was  always  a  mathematician, 
Jim  was,  while  for  my  part,  when  I  was  a  little 
chap  at  school,  the  asses'  bridge  at  an  early 
stage  effectually  blocked  my  further  prog- 
ress. I  could  never  get  over  it,  even  with  the 
persuasive  aid  of  what  Dr.  Slasher  used  politely 
to  call  his  vis  a  tergo.) 

"  They're   too  weak  to  row  far,  these  lads," 


THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED.  43 

Jim  said  in  his  didactic  way  —  ought  to  have 
been  a  schoolmaster  or  a  public  demonstrator, 
Jim  :  such  a  head  for  proving  things!  "There- 
fore they  must  mostly  have  been  drifting  before 
the  wind  ever  since  they  started.  Now,  wind 
for  the  last  fortnight's  been  steadily  nor'east " 
—  the  anti-trade  was  blowing.  "Therefore, 
they  must  have  come  from  the  nor'east,  I  take 
it;  and  if  we  steer  clean  in  the  face  of  the 
wind,  we're  bound  sooner  or  later  to  arrive  at 
Tanaki." 

"Jim,"  said  I,  admiring  him,  like,  "you're 
really  a  wonderful  chap.  You  do  put  your  fin- 
ger down  so  pat  on  things !  Steer  to  the  nor'- 
east it  is,  of  course.  But  I  wonder  how  far  off 
Tanaki  lies,  and  what  chance  we've  got  of 
reaching  there  by  Wednesday  the  tenth  ?  "  For 
though  we  didn't  even  know  yet  who  the  people 
were  who  were  threatened  with  massacre  at  this 
supposed  Tanaki,  we  couldn't  let  them  have 
their  throats  cut  in  cold  blood  without  at  least 
an  attempt  to  arrive  there  in  time  to  prevent  it. 


44  THE    MYSTERY   SOLVED. 

Of  course,  we  knew  with  our  one  brass  gun 
we  should  be  more  than  a  match  for  any 
Melanesian  islanders  we  were  likely  to  meet 
with,  if  once  we  could  get  there  ;  but  the  trouble 
was,  should  we  reach  in  time  to  forestall  the 
massacre  ? 

By  Wednesday  the  tenth  we  must  reach 
Tanaki  —  wherever  that  might  be. 

Jim  took  out  a  piece  of  paper  and  totted  up 
a  few  figures  carelessly  on  the  back.  "  We've 
plenty  of  coal,"  he  said,  "and  I  reckon  we  can 
make  nine  knots  an  hour,  if  it  comes  to  a  push, 
even  against  this  head  wind.  To-day's  the 
sixth  ;  that  gives  us  four  clear  days  still  to  the 
good.  At  nine  knots,  we  can  do  a  run  of  two 
hundred  and  thirty-six  knots  a  day.  Four  two- 
hundred-and-thirty-sixes  is  nine  hundred  and 
forty-four,  isn't  it  ?  Let  me  see  ;  four  sixes  is 
twenty-four  ;  put  down  four  and  carry  two  :  four 
three's  is  twelve,  and  two's  fourteen  :  four  two's 
—  yes,  that's  all  right  :  nine  hundred  and  forty- 
four,  you  see,  ex-actly.  Well,  then,  look  here, 


THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED.  45 

Julian :  unless  Tanaki's  further  off  than  nine 
hundred  and  forty-four  nautical  miles  —  which 
isn't  likely  —  we  ought  to  get  there  by  twelve 
o'clock  on  Wednesday  at  latest.  Nine  hundred 
and  forty-four  miles  is  an  awful  long  stretch  for 
two  boys  to  come  in  an  open  boat.  I  don't 
expect  these  boys  can  have  done  as  much  as 
that  or  anything  like  it." 

"Wind  and  current  were  with  them,"  I 
objected,  "  and  she  was  drifting  like  one  o'clock 
when  we  first  sighted  her.  I  shouldn't  be  sur- 
prised if  she  was  making  five  or  six  knots  an 
hour  before  half  a  gale  all  through  that  hard 
blow.  And  the  poor  boys  look  as  if  they  might 
have  been  out  a  week  or  more.  Still,  it  isn't 
likely  they  would  have  come  nine  hundred 
knots,  as  you  say,  or  anything  like  it.  If  we 
put  on  all  steam,  we  ought  to  arrive  in  time  to 
save  their  father  and  mother.  Anyhow  we'll 
try  it."  And  I  shouted  down  the  speaking 
tube,  "  Hi,  you  there,  engineer  !  —  pile  on  the 
coal  hard  and  make  her  travel.  We  want  all 


46  THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED. 

the  speed  we  can  get  out  of  the  Albatross  for 
the  next  three  days." 

"All  square,  sir,"  says  Jenkins;  and  he  piled 
on,  accordingly. 

So  we  steamed  ahead  as  hard  as  we  could  go,  in 
the  direction  where  we  expected  to  find  Tanaki. 

Half  an  hour  later,  Nassaline,  who  had  been 
down  below  with  the  Malay  cook  and  one  of 
the  men,  looking  after  the  patients,  came  up  on 
deck  once  more,  with  a  broad  grin  on  his  jet- 
black  face  from  ear  to  ear,  and  exclaimed  in 
his  very  best  Kanaka-English,  "Boy  come 
round  again.  Eat  plenty  arrowroot.  Eat  allee 
samee  like  as  if  starvee.  Call  very  hard  for  see 
Massa  Captain.'' 

"What  do  you  think's  the  matter  with  them, 
Nassaline  ? "  I  asked,  as  I  walked  along  by  his 
side  towards  the  companion-ladder. 

Nassaline's  ideas  were  exclusively  confined 
to  a  certain  fixed  and  narrow  Polynesian  circle. 
"  Tink  him  fader  go  sell  him  for  laborer  to  a 
man  oui-oui,  or  make  oven  hot  for  him,"  he 


THE   MYSTERY   SOLVED.  47 

answered,  grinning ;  "  so  him  run  away,  and 
come  put  himself  aboard  Massa  Captain  ship ; 
so  eat  plenty  —  no  beat,  no  starvee." 

It  was  his  own  personal  history  put  in  brief, 
and  he  fitted  it  at  once  as  the  only  possible  ex- 
planation to  these  other  poor  fugitives. 

"  Nonsense  ! "  I  said,  with  a  compassionate 
smile  at  his  innocence.  "  White  people  don't 
sell  or  eat  their  children,  stupid !  It's  my 
belief,  Nassaline,  we'll  never  make  a  civilized 
Christian  creature  of  you,  in  a  tall  hat,  and 
with  a  glass  in  your  eye.  You  ain't  cut  out  for 
it,  somehow.  How  many  times  have  I  explained 
to  you,  boy,  that  Christians  never  cook  and  eat 
their  enemies  ?  .  .  They  only  love  them, 
and  blow  them  up  with  Catlings  or  Armstrongs 
—  a  purely  fraternal  method  of  expressing 
slight  differences  of  international  opinion  .  .  . 
Now,  come  along  down  and  let's  see  these  lads. 
It's  some  of  your  heathen  relations,  I  expect, 
the  poor  fellows  are  flying  from." 

But  I  omitted  to  have  remarked  to  him  (as  I 


48  THE   MYSTERY   SOLVED. 

might  have  done)  that  I  hadn't  seen  such  a 
painful  sight  before,  since  I  saw  the  inhabitants 
of  a  French  village  in  Lorraine  —  old  men, 
young  girls,  and  mothers  with  babies  pressed 
against  their  breasts  —  flying,  pell-mell,  before 
the  sudden  onslaught  of  a  hundred  and  fifty 
Christian  Prussian  Uhlans.  These  little  pecu- 
liarities of  our  advanced  civilization  are  best 
not  mentioned  to  the  heathen  Polynesian. 

In  the  cabin  we  found  both  boys  now  fairly 
on  the  high-road  to  recovery,  though  still,  of 
course,  much  too  weak  to  talk ;  but  bursting 
over,  for  all  that,  with  eagerness  to  tell  us  their 
whole  eventful  history.  For  my  own  part,  I, 
too,  was  all  eagerness  to  hear  it ;  but  anxiety 
for  their  safety  made  me  restrain  my  impatience. 
The  elder  boy,  now  leaning  on  his  elbow  and 
staring  wildly  before  him  with  horror  —  a  mere 
skeleton  to  look  at,  with  his  sunken  cheeks  and 
great  hollow  eyes  —  began  to  break  forth  upon 
me  with  his  long  tale  in  full ;  but  I  soon  put  a 
stop  to  that,  you  may  be  pretty  sure,  with  most 


THE    MYSTERY   SOLVED.  49 

uncompromising  promptitude.  "  My  dear  Mr. 
Martin  Luther  Macglashin,"  I  said  severely, 
giving  him  the  full  benefit  of  all  his  own  various 
high-sounding  names  for  greater  impressiveness, 
"  if  you  don't  lean  back  this  moment  upon  your 
pillow,  quiet  your  rolling  eye  down  to  everyday 
proportions,  and  answer  only  in  the  shortest 
possible  words  nothing  but  the  plain  questions 
I  put  to  you,  hang  me,  sir,  if  I  don't  turn  you 
and  John  Knox  adrift  again  upon  the  wild 
waves,  and  continue  on  my  course  for  Levuka 
in  Fiji." 

"Why,  how  did  you  come  to  know  our 
names?"  he  exclaimed,  astonished.  "You 
must  be  as  sharp  as  a  lynx,  Captain." 
«  "That's  not  an  answer  to  my  question  I 
asked  you,"  I  replied  with  as  much  sternness  as 
I  could  put  into  my  voice,  looking  at  the  poor 
fellow's  starved  white  face.  "  But  as  a  special 
favor  to  a  deserving  fellow-creature,  I  don't 
mind  telling  you.  I'm  as  sharp  as  a  lynx,  as 
you  say,  and  a  trifle  sharper :  for  no  lynx 


5O  THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED. 

would  have  looked  for  your  names  on  the  flap  of 
your  shirts —  There,  that'll  do  now ;  don't  try  to 
talk  ;  just  answer  me  quietly.  Where  do  you 
come  from,  and  where  do  you  want  us  to  go  to  ? " 

Martin  lifted  up  his  face  and  answered  with 
becoming  brevity,  "Tanaki." 

"That's  better!"  I  said.  "That's  the  sort 
of  way  a  fellow  ought  to  answer,  when  he's 
more  than  half-starved  with  a  week  at  sea.  But 
the  next  thing  is,  where's  Tanaki?" 

"  It's  one  of  the  group  that  used  to  be  called 
the  Duke  of  Cumberland's  Islands,"  the  boy 
answered  faintly,  yet  overflowing  with  eager- 
ness. "  They  lie  just  beyond  the  Ellice  Archi- 
pelago, nearly  on  the  line  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty,  as  you  go  towards  the  Union  Group 
along  the  parallel  of "  .  .  . 

"  Now,  my  dear  boy,"  I  said,  "if  you  run  on 
like  that,  as  I  said  before,  I  shall  have  to  turn 
you  adrift  again  in  your  open  boat  at  the  mercy 
of  the  ocean.  Do  be  quiet,  won't  you,  and  let 
me  look  up  your  island  ?  " 


THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED.  51 

"  We  can't  be  quiet,"  Master  John  Knox  put 
in  eagerly,  "  when  we  know  they're  going  to 
murder  our  father  and  mother  and  Calvin  and 
Miriam,  on  Wednesday  morning." 

"Just  you  hold  your  tongue,  sir,"  I  said,  push- 
ing him  down  again  on  his  bunk,  "  and  wait 
till  you're  spoken  to.  Now,  not  another  word, 
either  of  you,  till  I've  consulted  my  chart.  Jim, 
hand  down  the  Admiralty  sheets  again,  there's 
a  good  fellow,  will  you  ?" 

Jim  handed  them  down,  and  we  commenced 
our  scrutiny  at  once.  We  soon  found  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland's  Islands,  and  as  good  luck  would 
have  it,  found  we  were  steering  as  straight  as  an 
arrow  for  them.  The  direction  of  the  wind  had 
not  misled  us.  But  no  such  place  as  Tanaki 
could  we  still  find  anywhere. 

"It  used  to  be  called  'The  Long  Reef,'" 
Martin  said,  looking  up ;  "  but  now  we  call  it 
by  the  native  name,  Tanaki." 

"Oh!  The  Long  Reef,"  I  said;  "why  didn't 
you  say  so  at  first  ?  I  know  that  well  enough 


52  THE   MYSTERY   SOLVED. 

by  sight  on  the  chart ;  but  I  never  heard  it 
called  Tanaki  before.  That  accounts,  of  course, 
for  the  milk  in  the  cocoa-nut.  Jim,  hand  along 
the  calipers  here,  and  let's  measure  out  the 
course.  Two  —  four — six  —  eight,"  I  went  on, 
looping  along  line  of  sailing  with  the  calipers. 
"A  trifle  short  of  eight  hundred  miles.  Say 
seven  hundred  and  eighty.  And  we  have 
till  Wednesday  morning.  Well,  we  ought  to 
do  it." 

"You'll  be  in  time  to  save  them,  then!"  the 
elder  boy  cried,  jumping  up  once  more  like  a 
Jack-in-the-box.  "  You'll  be  in  time  to  save 
them ! " 

"  Will  you  be  quiet,  if  you  please  ? "  I  said, 
poking  him  down  again  flat,  and  holding  my 
hand  on  his  mouth.  "  O,  yes !  I  expect  we'll 
be  in  time  to  save  them.  If  only  you'll  let  us 
alone,  and  not  make  such  a  noise.  We  can  do 
nine  knots  an  hour  easy,  under  all  steam ;  and 
that  ought  to  bring  us  up  to  Tanaki,  as  you  call 
it,  by  Wednesday  morning  in  the  very  small 


THE   MYSTERY    SOLVED.  53 

hours.  Let's  see,  we've  got  four  clear  days  to 
do  it  in." 

"  Five,"  the  boy  answered.  "  Five.  To-day's 
Friday." 

"No,  no,"  I  replied  curtly.  "Will  you  please 
shut  up  ?  Especially  when  you  only  darken  coun- 
sel with  many  words.  You're  out  of  your  reckon- 
ing. To-day's  Saturday,  I  tell  you." 

And  in  point  of  fact,  indeed,  it  really  was 
Saturday. 

"  No,  it's  Friday,"  Martin  went  on  with  extra- 
ordinary persistence. 

"  Saturday,"  I  repeated.  "  Knife  ;  scissors : 
knife  ,  scissors." 

"  But  we  got  away  from  Tanaki  eight  days 
ago,"  the  boy  declared  strongly  with  a  very 
earnest  face;  "and  it  was  Thursday  when  we 
left.  I  kept  count  of  the  days  and  nights  all  that 
awful  time  we  were  tossing  about  on  the  ocean 
alone,  and  I'm  sure  I'm  right.  To-day's  Friday." 

"Jim,"  I  said,  turning  to  my  brother,  "what 
day  of  the  week  do  you  make  it  ? " 


54  THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED. 

"Why,  Saturday,  of  course,"  Jim  answered 
with  confidence. 

I  went  to  the  bottom  of  the  companion-ladder 
and  called  out  aloud  where  the  boy  could  hear 
me,  "  Tom  Blake,  what  day  of  the  week  and 
month  is  it  ?" 

"  Saturday  the  sixth,   sir,"  Tom  called  out. 

"There,  my  boy,"  I  said,  turning  to  him, 
"  you  see  you're  mistaken.  You've  lost  count 
of  the  time  in  this  awful  journey  of  yours.  I 
expect  you  were  half  unconscious  the  last  day 
and  night.  But,  good  heavens,  Jim,  just  to 
think  of  what  they've  done !  They've  been  out 
nine  days  and  nights  in  an  open  boat,  almost 
without  food  or  drink,  and  they've  come  all 
that  incredible  distance  before  the  high  wind. 
Except  with  a  ripping  good  breeze  behind  them 
they  could  never  have  done  it." 

"  For  my  part,"  said  Jim,  looking  up  from  his 
chart,  "  I  can  hardly  understand  how  they  ever 
did  it  at  all.  I  declare,  I  call  it  nothing  short 
of  a  miracle  !  " 


-  THE    MYSTERY    SOLVED.  55 

And  so  indeed  it  was  :  for  it  seemed  as  though 
the  wind  had  drifted  them  straight  ahead  from 
the  moment  they  started  in  the  exact  direction 
where  the  Albatross  was  to  meet  them. 

I'm  an  old  seafaring  hand  by  this  time,  and  I 
may  be  superstitious,  but  I  see  the  finger  of  fate 
in  such  a  coincidence  as  that  one. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

FOR  the  next  two  days  we  went  steaming 
ahead  as  hard  as  we  could  go  in  a  bee- 
line  to  the  northeastward,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland's  Islands;  and  it  was  two 
days  clear  before  those  unfortunate  boys,  Jack 
and  Martin  —  for  that  was  what  they  called  one 
another  for  short,  in  spite  of  their  severely  theo- 
logical second  names  —  were  in  a  condition  to 
tell  us  exactly  what  had  happened,  without 
danger  to  their  shattered  nerves  and  impaired 
digestions. 

When  they  did  manage   to  speak  —  both  at 

once,  for  choice,  in  their  eagerness  to  get  their 

story  out  —  here's  about  what  their  history  came 

to,  as  we  pieced  it  together,  bit  by  bit,  from  the 

56 


MARTIN    LUTHERS   STORY.  57 

things  they  told  us  at  different  times.  If  I  were 
one  of  those  writing  chaps,  now,  that  know  how 
to  tell  a  whole  ten  years'  history,  end  on  end, 
exactly  as  it  happened,  without  missing  a  detail, 
I'd  get  it  all  out  for  you  just  as  Martin  told  us ; 
or  better  still,  I'd  give  it  to  you  in  a  single  con- 
nected piece,  between  inverted  commas,  as  his 
own  words,  beginning,  "  I  was  born,"  said  he, 
"  in  the  city  of  Edinburgh,"  and  so  forth,  after 
the  regular  high-and-dry  literary  fashion.  But 
how  on  earth  those  clever  book-making  fellows 
can  ever  remember  a  whole  long  speech,  word 
for  word,  from  beginning  to  end,  I  never  could 
make  out  and  never  shall,  neither.  What  mem- 
ories they  must  have  to  do  it,  to  be  sure  !  It's 
my  own  belief  they  make  it  up  more  than 
half  out  of  their  own  heads  as  they  go  along, 
and  are  perfectly  happy  if  it  only  just  sounds 
plausible.  But  anyhow,  Martin  Luther  Mac- 
glashin  didn't  tell  us  all  his  story  at  a  single 
time,  or  in  a  connected  way ;  he  gave  us  a  bit 
now  and  a  bit  again,  with  additions  from  Jack, 


58  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

according  as  he  was  able.  So  being,  as  I  say, 
no  more  than  a  free-and-easy  master  mariner 
myself,  without  skill  in  literature,  I'm  not  going 
to  try  to  repeat  it  all,  word  for  word,  to  you  pre- 
cisely as  it  came,  but  shall  just  take  the  liberty 
of  spinning  my  yarn  my  own  way  and  letting 
you  have  in  short  the  gist  and  substance  of  what 
we  gradually  got  out  of  our  two  fugitives. 

Well,  it  seems  that  Jack  and  Martin's  father 
was,  just  as  I  suspected,  a  Scotch  missionary  on 
the  Island  of  Tanaki.  He  lived  there  with  an- 
other family  of  missionaries  of  the  same  sect, 
in  peace  and  quiet,  as  well  as  with  an  English 
merchant  of  the  name  of  Williams,  who  traded 
with  the  natives  for  calico,  .knives,  glass  beads 
and  tobacco.  For  a  long  time  things  had  gone 
on  pretty  comfortably  in  the  little  settlement ; 
though  to  be  sure  the  natives  did  sometimes 
steal  Mr.  Macglashin's  fowls  or  threaten  to  tie 
Mr.  Williams  to  a  cocoa-nut  palm  and  take  cock- 
shots  at  him  with  a  Snider,  out  of  pure  lightness 
of  heart,  unless  he  gave  them  rum,  square  gin 


NATIVES  OF  THE   ISLAND  OF  TANAKI.        Page   58 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  59 

or  brandy.  Still,  in  spite  of  these  playful  little 
eccentricities  of  the  good-humored  Kanakas, 
who  will  have  their  joke,  murderer  no  murder,  all 
went  as  merrily  as  a  wedding  bell  (as  they  say 
in  novels)  till  suddenly  one  morning  a  French 
labor-vessel  —  I  suspect  the  very  one  we  had  in- 
tercepted in  the  act  of  trying  to  carry  off  Nassa- 
line  —  put  into  the  harbor  in  search  of  "  appren- 
tices." 

She  was  a  very  bad  lot,  from  what  the  boys 
told  us  ;  a  genuine  slaver  of  the  worst  type ; 
and  she  stirred  up  a  deal  of  mischief  at 
Makilolo. 

On  the  shore  the  Chief  of  Tanaki  was  drawn 
up  to  receive  them  with  all  his  warriors,  taste- 
fully but  inexpensively  rigged  out  in  a  string  of 
blue  beads  round  the  neck,  an  anklet  of  shells 
and  a  head-dress  of  a  single  large  yellow  feather. 

"Who  are  you?"  shouts  the  chief  at  the  top 
of  his  voice.  "  You  man  a  oui-oui't" 

"Yes,"  the  Frenchman  shouts  back  in  his 
pigeon-English.  "  Me  de  commander  of  dis 


60  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

French  ship.  Want  to  buy  boys.  Must  sell 
them  to  us.  Tanaki  French  island.  Discov- 
ered by  Bougainville." 

"  No,  no,"  says  the  Chief  in  pigeon-English 
again.  "  Tanaki  no  belong  a  man  a  -out-out. 
Tanaki  belong  a  Queenie  England.  Capitaney 
Cook  find  him  long  time  back.  My  father  little 
fellow  then  ;  him  see  Capitaney,  him  tell  me 
often.  Capitaney  Cook  no  man  a  oui-oui ;  him 
fellow  English." 

The  other  natives  joined  in  at  once  with  their 
loud  cry,  "  Chief  speak  true.  Tanaki  belong  a 
Queenie  England.  Tanaki  no  belong  a  man  a 
oui-oui.  If  man  a  out- out. want  to  take  Tanaki, 
man  a  Tanaki  come  out  and  fight  him."  And 
they  threw  themselves  at  once  into  a  threaten- 
ing attitude. 

"  Have  you  got  any  Englishmen  here  ? "  the 
French  skipper  called  out,  to  make  sure  of  his 
ground. 

"Yes,"  says  the  missionary — our  boys' 
father  — •  standing  out  from  the  crowd.  "  Three 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  61 

English  families  here.  Settled  on  the  island. 
And  we  deny  that  this  group  belongs  to  the 
French  Republic." 

At  that  the  Frenchman  pulled  back  a  bit. 
When  he  saw  there  was  likely  to  be  opposition, 
and  that  his  proceedings  were  watched  by  three 
English  families,  he  drew  in  his  horns  a  little. 
He  knew  if  he  interfered  too  openly  with  the 
missionaries'  proceedings,  an  English  gunboat 
might  come  along,  sooner  or  later,  and  over- 
haul him  for  fomenting  discord  on  an  island 
known  to  be  under  the  British  protectorate. 
So  he  only  answered  in  French,  "  Well,  we're 
peaceable  traders,  Monsieur.  We  don't  want  to 
interfere  with  the  British  Government.  Consider 
us  friends.  All  we  desire  is  to  hire  laborers." 
And  he  landed  his  boat's  crew  before  the  very 
face  of  Macglashin  and  the  Tanaki  warriors. 

At  first,  as  often  happens  in  these  islands, 
the  natives  were  very  little  disposed  to  trade 
with  the  strangers  in  boys  or  women,  for  they 
were  afraid  of  the  Frenchmen ;  and  Macglashin 


62  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

and  the  other  missionary  did  all  they  knew  to 
prevent  the  new  comers  from  carrying  off  any 
of  the  islanders  into  practical  slavery.  But  after 
awhile  the  Frenchmen  produced  their  regulation 
bottles  of  square  gin  (that's  what  they  call  Hol- 
lands in  the  South  Pacific),  and  began  to  treat 
the  Chief  and  the  other  savages  to  drinks  all 
round,  as  much  as  you  liked,  with  nothing  to 
pay  for  it.  In  a  very  short  time  the  Chief  had 
got  so  much  liquor  aboard  that  his  legs  wouldn't 
answer  the  rudder  any  longer,  and  he  began  to 
reel  about  like  a  perfect  madman.  Most  of  the 
other  full-grown  men  natives  followed  suit  before 
long,  and  lay  down  on  the  beach  half  dead  with 
drunkenness.  Perhaps  the  liquor  was  drugged ; 
perhaps  it  wasn't ;  but  anyhow,  in  spite  of  all  the 
missionaries  could  do,  the  shore  before  nightfall 
was  in  a  condition  of  the  wildest  and  most  bestial 
orgies.  The  men,  in  what  the  newspapers  call 
"a  high  state  of  vinous  exhilaration,"  were  ready 
to  sell  their  boys  and  girls,  or  anything  else  on 
earth  for  a  little  more  gin  ;  and  as  the  mission- 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  63 

aries  were  naturally  helpless  to  prevent  it,  the 
Frenchman  was  soon  driving  a  roaring  trade  in 
flesh  and  blood  against  the  drunken  savages. 

The  business-like  way  they  went  to  work, 
Jack  and  Martin  told  us,  was  horribly  disgust- 
ing. The  women,  indeed,  they  tried  to  wheedle 
and  cajole  —  "You  like  go  along  a  New  Caledo- 
nia along  a  me  ?  Only  three  yam  times ;  then  ship 
bring  you  back  again.  Very  good  feed;  plenty 
nyam-nyam.  Pay  very  good.  Pay  money.  Lots 
of  shop.  You  buy  what  you  like  :  you  buy  red 
dress,  red  handkerchief,  beads  like-a-chiefie.  No 
fight ;  no  beat ;  no  swear  at  you.  You  good  girl ; 
I  good  fellow  master."  But  if  they  couldn't  in- 
duce them,  by  fair  words  and  promises  and  little 
presents  of  cheap  French  finery,  to  put  their 
mark  to  their  sham  indentures,  then  they  just 
knocked  them  down  with  a  blow  on  the  head, 
dragged  them  by  their  hair  to  the  boats  hard 
by,  and  got  their  fathers  or  husbands  to  put 
their  marks,  and  receive  a  few  dollars  and  some 
red  cloth  in  payment. 


64  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.' 

0 

As  for  the  boys,  they  handled  them  like 
so  many  animals  in  a  market.  "  Turn  round, 
cochon  !  Show  me  your  faces  !  Mille  tonnerres, 
let  me  see  how  you  can  run,  you  dirty  young 
blackguard  !  "  They  examined  them  as  a  vet- 
erinary would  examine  a  horse.  "  Why,  there 
was  our  littlfr  fellow,  Nangaree,"  Jack  said  to 
us  with  deep  concern  —  "  Nangaree,  that  used 
to  clean  up  things  for  mother  at  the  mission- 
house  :  his  father  sold  him  for  twenty  dollars. 
The  captain  looked  at  his  legs,  and  at  the 
glands  in  his  throat,  to  see  if  he'd  had  the 
chicken-pox  and  the  measles.  Then  he  said  to 
his  mate,  '  This  lot's  cheap  enough.  He's  a  first- 
rate  lad,  and  can  speak  English.  He'll  do  for 
the  hold.  Bundle  him  along ! '  And  the  mate 
caught  him  up  by  the  scruff  of  his  neck  and 
hauled  him  to  the  boats,  kicking  and  scream- 
ing ;  and  that  was  the  last  we  saw  of  poor 
Nangaree  ! " 

For  three  days  and  nights,  it  seems,  this 
horrible  inhuman  market  or  slave-fair  went  on 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  65 

upon  the  beach,  the  Frenchmen  taking  care  to 
keep  the  natives  well  primed  with  spirits  all 
the  time,  till  they'd  got  their  hold  full,  and 
were  prepared  to  sail  away  again  with  their 
living  cargo.  Then  at  last  they  upped  anchor, 
and  out  of  the  harbor.  But  before  they  went, 
the  skipper,  it  appears,  who  was  angry  at  the 
missionaries  for  having  interfered  with  him,  and 
was  afraid  they  might  report  his  proceedings  to 
the  British  Government  when  next  the  mission 
ship  came  that  way  on  her  provisioning  rounds, 
took  aside  the  Chief  in  a  confidential  chat,  and 
tried  to  inflame  his  mind,  all  mad  drunk  that  he 
was,  against  the  English  residents.  Apparently 
he  had  made  so  good  a  three  days'  work  of  it 
with  his  horrible  trade,  and  found  it  so  con- 
venient to  draw  his  supplies  from  this  remote 
and  almost  unvisited  island,  that  he  thought  it 
would  be  nice  if  before  his  next  visit  he  could  get 
rid  altogether  of  these  meddlesome  strangers. 
He  didn't  want  European  witnesses  to  crop  up 
against  him  in  future ;  so  he  told  the  Chief,  with 


66  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

a  great  show  of  confidence,  that  Macglashin  and 
his  friends  were  not  English  at  all,  but  Scotch ; 
and  he  pointed  out  that  it  was  uncomfortable 
for  the  natives  to  be  interfered  with  in  their  trad- 
ing operations  by  a  set  of  white-livered  curs  who 
objected  to  the  selling  of  boys  and  girls  into 
temporary  slavery.  Surely  a  Chief  had  a  right 
to  do  as  he  would  with  his  own  subjects  !  What 
else  he  said,  Heaven  knows,  but  this  is  what 
happened  as  soon  as  the  French,  with  their 
horrid  cargo,  had  got  well  clear  of  the  unhappy 
island. 

That  very  afternoon,  the  Chief,  beginning  to 
get  sober  again,  but  quarrelsome  from  head- 
ache and  the  other  after-effects  of  a  long 
debauch,  came  round  to  the  mission-house  in  a 
towering  rage,  and  asked  the  unsuspecting 
missionary,  "  Say,  white  man,  are  you  a 
Scotchman  ? " 

"  Yes,"  says  Macglashin,  not  knowing  what 
was  coming.  "  I'm  a  Scotchman,  Chief,  cer- 
tainlv.  I  was  born  in  Scotland." 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  67 

The  Chief  laughed  loud.  "  Ha,  ha,"  he  said, 
"  then  Queenie  England  no  take  care  a  you. 
No  send  gunboat  to  shoot  us  all  dead,  if  man  a 
Tanaki  come  up  and  kill  you." 

At  that  Macglashin  grew  alarmed,  and 
answered,  "  O,  yes  !  The  Queen  of  England 
would  certainly  avenge  us."  And  he  tried  to 
explain  the  exact  relation  in  which  Scotchmen 
stood  to  the  British  crown  —  that  they  were 
just  as  much  British  subjects  as  Englishmen, 
entitled  to  precisely  the  same  amount  of  pro- 
tection. But  the  Chief  couldn't  be  made  to  un- 
derstand. The  French  skipper  had  evidently 
poisoned  his  mind  against  them.  "  Man  a 
Tanaki  don't  want  no  Scotchman  interfere  with 
Chief  when  him  go  to  sell  him  boy  and  him 
woman,"  the  savage  said  angrily.  "Tanaki 
belong  a  Queenie  England.  Queenie  England 
no  want  Scotchman  interfere  with  people  in 
Tanaki.  Scotchman  better  keep  quiet  in  him 
house.  Queenie  England  no  mind  Scotch- 
man." 


68  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

And  no  amount  of  reasoning  produced  any 
effect  upon  him. 

The  missionaries  went  to  bed  that  evening 
with  many  misgivings.  They  felt  that  for  the 
first  time,  so  far  as  the  natives  were  concerned, 
the  powerful  protection  of  the  British  flag  was 
now  practically  withdrawn.  They  were  alone, 
as  strangers,  among  those  excited  black  fellows. 

At  dead  of  night,  while  the  two  boys  slept, 
a  horrible  din  outside  the  mission-house  awoke 
them.  They  looked  out,  and  saw  the  red  glare 
of  torches  outside.  A  frightful  horde  of  Kana- 
kas, naked  save  for  their  war-paint,  drunk  with 
the  Frenchman's  rum  and  armed  with  his  Sni- 
ders,  surrounded  the  frail  building  in  a  hideous 
mob  of  savagery.  As  Martin  put  his  head  out 
of  the  lattice  a  bullet  came  whizzing  past.  He 
withdrew  it  for  a  moment,  terrified,  and  then 
looked  out  again.  As  he  did  so  the  other 
Scotch  missionary  appeared  upon  the  veranda, 
half-dressed,  and  holding  up  his  hand  in  digni- 
fied remonstrance,  began  in  Kanaka  with  his 


MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY.  69 

gentle  mild  voice,  "  My  friends,  my  dear  friends, 
.  .  ."  Before  he  could  get  any  further,  the 
Chief  stepped  forward,  and  aiming  a  blow  at 
his  gray  locks  with  a  sacred  native  tomahawk, 
felled  the  peaceful  old  teacher  senseless  to  the 
ground.  Martin  shuddered  with  horror.  The 
old  man  lay  weltering  in  a  pool  of  his  red  gush- 
ing gore,  while  the  savages  danced  in  triumph 
over  his  prostrate  body,  or  smeared  themselves 
with  great  lines  and  circles  of  his  warm  heart- 
blood. 

"  Come  on ! "  the  Chief  cried  in  Kanaka. 
"  Kill  all !  Kill  every  one  !  They're  taboo  to 
our  gods.  Don't  fear  their  gunboats.  Queenie 
England  won't  trouble  to  protect  a  Scotchman  !" 
Then  began  a  hideous  orgy  of  wild  lust  and 
slaughter.  The  savages  rushed  on,  drunk  with 
blood  and  rum,  and  dragged  out  the  wife  and 
children  of  the  other  missionary,  whom  they 
brained  upon  the  spot,  before  the  terrified  eyes 
of  the  trembling  Macglashins.  The  trader 
Williams  ran  up  just  then,  with  his  revolver  in 


70  MARTIN  LUTHER'S  STORY. 

his  hand,  followed  by  two  faithful  black  ser- 
vants from  a  neighboring  island ;  but  the 
French  skipper  had  been  cunning  enough  there 
too.  "  Him  a  Welshman !  "  the  savages  cried. 
"  Queenie  England  no  care  for  him !  "  For 
indeed  he  happened  to  be  born  in  Wales.  And 
they  shot  him  down  as  he  came,  before  he  could 
open  fire  upon  them.  Then  they  turned  to 
massacre  the  Macglashins,  the  only  remaining 
Europeans  on  the  island. 

But  just  at  that  moment  a  sudden  idea 
seemed  to  strike  the  Chief.  He  cried  out, 
"  Stop  !  "  The  savages  fell  back  and  listened 
with  eagerness  to  what  was  coming.  Then  the 
Chief  shouted  out  again  in  Kanaka  —  "I  have 
a  thought.  The  gods  have  sent  it  to  me.  This 
is  my  thought.  We  have  killed  enough  for  to- 
night. Let  us  catch  them  alive  and  bind  them. 
Next  moon  is  the  great  feast  of  my  father 
Taranaka.  I  have  an  idea —  a  divine  idea.  Let 
us  keep  them  till  that  day,  and  then,  in  honor  of 
the  gods,  let  us  roast  them  and  eat  them." 


THE   SAVAGES   FELL   BACK.  Page   70 


MARTIN    LUTHER  S    STORY.  71 

The  whole  assembly  answered  with  a  wild 
shout  of  delighted  assent — "Taranaka!  Tara- 
naka !  Our  great  dead  Chief !  In  honor  of 
Taranaka,  let  us  roast  them  and  eat  them." 

So  they  rushed  wildly  on  upon  the  defense- 
less white  family,  bound  them  in  rude  cords  of 
native  make,  and  carried  them  off  in  triumph  to 
Taranaka's  temple  tomb  in  the  palm-grove. 

And  that  was  as  much  as  we  could  allow  the 
boys  to  tell  us  at  a  time,  of  their  strange  adven- 
tures. We  were  afraid  of  overtaxing  their 
strength  at  first,  and  tried  to  confine  their  at- 
tention as  much  as  possible  to  tinned  meats  and 
sea-biscuit  soaked  in  condensed  milk  ;  though 
I'm  bound  to  admit  that  as  soon  as  they  began 
to  recover  appetite  a  bit,  they  addressed  them- 
selves steadily  and  seriously  to  their  food,  with 
true  British  pluck  and  perseverance.  In  spite 
of  the  terrors  from  which  they  had  just  escaped, 
they  did  the  fullest  justice  to  Serang-Palo's 
cookery. 


CHAPTER   V. 

A    BREAK-DOWN. 

TIME  went  on,  and  the  boys  began  to  grow 
visibly  fatter.  It  was  Tuesday  evening, 
and  we  hoped,  putting  on  all  steam  as  we  were 
doing,  to  reach  Tanaki  by  the  small  hours  of 
Wednesday  morning,  in  good  season  to  relieve 
the  four  unhappy  souls  still,  as  we  believed, 
detained  there  in  captivity.  We  were  strained 
on  the  very  rack  of  excitement,  indeed,  with  our 
efforts  to  arrive  before  the  savages  could  take 
any  further  step;  and  the  boys'  anxiety  for  their 
parents'  and  their  sister's  safety  had  naturally 
communicated  itself  to  us,  as  we  listened  to 
their  story.  Why,  it  was  that  very  evening  that 
Martin  had  told  us  the  rest  of  his  strange  tale 
—  how  his  father  and  mother,  with  his  younger 
72 


A    BREAK-DOWN.  73 

brother  Calvin  and  his  sister  Miriam,  had  been 
confined  by  the  savages  in  the  grass-hut  temple, 
while  he  and  Jack  were  put  to  lie  in  an  open 
out-house  hard  by,  guarded  only  by  a  single 
half-intoxicated  Kanaka.  Well,  in  the  middle 
of  the  night,  those  two  brave  boys  had  silently 
gnawed  their  ropes  asunder,  and  creeping  past 
their  guard  had  stolen  away  to  the  beach  in  the 
desperate  effort  to  escape  in  search  of  assistance. 
There,  they  luckily  found  the  mission  boat 
hauled  down  on  the  shore  ;  and  waiting  only  to 
take  a  can  of  water  from  the  spring  close  by, 
and  a  bunch  of  half-ripe  bananas  from  a  garden 
on  the  harbor,  they  had  put  forth  alone  on  their 
wild  and  adventurous  voyage  across  the  lone 
Pacific.  I  can  tell  you,  it  brought  the  tears  to 
our  eyes  more  than  once,  rough  sailors  as  we 
were,  to  hear  the  strange  story  of  their  hope- 
less sail,  and  it  made  our  blood  boil  to  learn 
how  these  ungrateful  savages  had  repaid  the 
earnest  and  devoted  life-labor  of  the  unhappy 
missionaries. 


74  A    BREAK-DOWN. 

"  No  wonder  him  hungry,"  that  young  monkey 
Nassaline  said,  with  profound  condolence,  "  if 
him  don't  hab  nuffin  to  eat  for  ten  day  long  but 
unripe  banana."  Anything  that  concerned  the 
human  stomach  always  touched  a  most  tender 
and  responsive  chord  in  Nassaline's  sympathies. 

At  eight  bells  when  my  watch  was  up,  I  went 
off  for  a  quiet  snooze  to  my  cabin.  I  knew  I 
should  be  wanted  for  hot  work  about  three  in 
the  morning,  for  I  didn't  expect  to  effect  the 
rescue  without  a  hard  fight  for  it ;  so  I  thought 
it  best  to  get  what  sleep  I  could  before  arriving 
at  the  islands.  So  I  lay  in  my  berth,  with  my 
eyes  shut,  and  a  thin  sheet  spread  over  me  (for 
it  was  broiling  hot  tropical  weather),  and  I  was 
just  beginning  to  doze  off  in  comfort,  when  sud- 
denly I  felt  something  move  under  me  like  a 
young  earthquake.  Next  minute  I  was  jolted 
clean  out  of  my  bed,  with  such  a  jerk  that  I 
thought  at  first  we  were  all  going  to  sleep  on 
the  bed  of  the  ocean. 

"  Halloo,"  I  cried  out  to  Jim  up  atop,  rushing 


A    BREAK-DOWN.  75 

out  of  my  cabin.  "  What's  up  ?  Anything 
wrong  ?  What's  happened  ?  "  . 

"  Grazed  a  reef,  I  guess,"  Jim  shouted  back, 
calmly.  "  No  land  in  sight,  but  shoal  water 
and  breakers  ahead.  We  seem  to  be  in  danger." 

Cool  chap,  Jim,  under  no  matter  what  circum- 
stances. But  this  looked  serious.  In  a  second 
I  was  up,  and  peering  out  over  the  bows  into 
the  dark  black  water.  The  Albatross  had 
slowed,  and  was  reversing  engines.  All  round 
us  we  could  see  great  heaving  breakers. 

"No  land  hereabouts,"  Jim  sung  out,  con- 
sulting the  chart  once  more.  "  We  ought  to  be 
-at  least  five  miles  to  suth'ard  of  the  Great 
Caycos  Band  Reef." 

As  he  spoke,  I  saw  Martin's  white  face 
appearing  suddenly  at  the  top  of  the  companion- 
ladder.  He  flung  up  his  hands  in  an  agony  of 
despair.  "  Oh,  how  terrible  1 "  the  poor  lad 
blurted  out  in  his  misery.  "  I  ought  to  have 
remembered  !  I  ought  to  have  told  you ! 
Father  says  the  charts  hereabouts  are  all  many 


76  A    BREAK-DOWN. 

miles  wrong  in  their  bearings.  The  Caycos  Reef 
lies  six  or  seven  knots  south  by  west  of  the 
point  it's  marked  at !  " 

In  a  ferment  of  anxiety  I  turned  up  our  other 
Sydney  charts  at  once  to  test  his  statement. 
Sure  enough  there  was  a  discrepancy,  a  con- 
siderable discrepancy,  both  in  latitude  and 
longitude,  between  the  two  maps.  At  the  mar- 
gin of  one  I  read  this  vague  and  uncomfortable 
note  —  "  These  islands  are  reported  by  certain 
navigators  to  lie  further  south  and  west  than 
here  laid  down,  and  have  never  been  accurately 
surveyed  by  good  authorities.  Careful  navi- 
gation by  day  alone  is  recommended  to  master 
mariners." 

Jim  looked  at  me,  and  I  looked  at  Jim. 
What  on  earth  could  we  do  in  such  a  fix  as  this? 
To  go  on  in  the  dark,  with  unknown  reefs  be- 
fore us,  was  to  imperil  the  Albatross  and  all  on 
board  ;  to  cast  anchor  where  we  stood  and  hold 
back  till  daylight  was  to  risk  not  arriving  in 
time  to  rescue  the  unfortunate  missionary  with 


A   BREAK-DOWN.  77 

his  wife  and  family.  I  glanced  at  the  boy's 
white  face  as  he  stood  by  the  companion-ladder, 
and  made  up  my  mind  at  once.  Come  what 
might,  I  must  push  forward  and  save  them. 

"  Slow  engines,"  I  called  down  the  pipe, 
"and  proceed  half-speed  till  further  orders. 
Jim,  go  for'ard,  and  keep  a  sharp  eye  on  the 
breakers.  As  soon  as  we're  clear,  we'll  steam 
ahead  full  pelt  again,  and  risk  going  ashore 
sooner  than  leave  these  poor  folks  on  the  island 
to  be  cruelly  massacred." 

"Thank  you,"  the  boy  said,  with  an  ashy 
face,  and  lay  down  upon  the  deck,  unmanned 
and  trembling.  His  lips  were  as  white,  I  give 
you  my  word,  as  this  sheet  of  paper  I'm  this 
moment  writing  upon. 

For  a  hundred  yards  or  so  we  slowed,  and 
went  ahead  without  coming  to  any  further  stop ; 
then  suddenly,  a  sharp  thud  —  a  dull  sound  of 
grating  —  a  thrill  through  the  ship  ;  and  Jim, 
looking  up  from  in  front,  with  a  cool  face  as 
usual,  called  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  but 


78  A    BREAK-DOWN. 

with  considerable  annoyance,  "  By  Jove,  we're 
aground  again ! " 

And  so  we  were,  this  time  with  a  vengeance. 

"  Back  her,"  I  called  out,  "  back  her  hard, 
Jenkins  !  "  and  they  backed  her  as  hard  as  the 
engines  could  spurt ;  but  nothing  came  of  it. 
We  were  jammed  on  the  reef  about  as  tight  as 
a  ship  could  stick,  and  no  power  on  earth  could 
ever  have  got  us  off  till  the  tide  rose  again. 

Well,  we  tried  our  very  hardest,  reversing 
engines  first,  and  then  putting  them  forward 
again  to  see  if  we  could  run  through  it  by  main 
force  ;  but  it  was  all  in  vain.  Aground  we  were, 
and  aground  we  must  remain  till  there  was 
depth  of  water  enough  on  the  reef  to  float  us. 

Fortunately  the  tide  was  rising  fast,  and  three 
hours  more  would  see  us  out  of  our  difficulties. 
Three  hours  was  a  very  serious  delay ;  but  I 
calculated  if  we  got  off  the  reef  by  two  in  the 
morning,  we  should  still  have  time  to  reach 
Tanaki  pretty  comfortably  before  seven.  We 
must  enter  the  harbor  by  daylight,  no  doubt, 


A   BREAK-DOWN.  79 

which  would  perhaps  be  dangerous ;  because 
when  the  savages  saw  us  arrive,  they  might 
make  haste  to  cut  the  white  people's  throats 
before  we  could  get  up  to  rescue  them.  But  I 
thought  it  more  likely  they  would  try  to  save 
them,  to  prevent  our  opening  fire  upon  them  by 
way  of  punishment ;  so  with  what  comfort  we 
could,  we  stuck  on  upon  the  reef,  and  waited 
for  the  inevitable  tide  to  come  and  float  us. 

Waiting  for  the  tide  is  always  slow  business. 

At  about  half-past  one,  however,  the  water 
began  to  deepen  under  the  ship,  and  we  could 
feel  her  rise  and  fall  —  bump,  bump,  bump  — 
with  each  onslaught  of  the  breakers.  Now 
bumping  on  a  reef  isn't  exactly  wholesome  for 
a  ship's  bottom,  so  I  gave  the  word  to  Jenkins 
for  the  engines  to  go  to  work  again  ;  and  pres- 
ently, after  two  or  three  unsuccessful  attempts, 
we  got  her  safe  off,  by  energetic  reversing,  and 
found  to  our  great  delight  that  the  Albatross, 
like  a  tight  little  craft  that  she  was,  had  sprung 
no  leak,  and  was  making  no  water.  Her  sound 


8o  A   BREAK-DOWN. 

old  timbers  had  just  grazed  the  surface  of  that 
flat-topped  reef  without  suffering  any  serious 
internal  injury. 

As  soon  as  we  were  free,  and  had  examined 
our  hold,  I  shouted  down  once  more,  "  Now 
forward,  boys,  as  hard  as  you  can  go,  and  mind, 
Jenkins,  you  make  her  travel ! " 

To  my  immense  surprise,  instead  of  obeying 
my  orders,  the  Albatross  suddenly  stood  stock- 
still  in  the  trough  of  a  wave,  drifting  helplessly 
about  like  a  log  on  the  ocean. 

"  Now  then,"  I  shouted  down  again,  half  angry 
and  half  alarmed.  "  What  are  you  doing  there, 
Jenkins?  Didn't  you  hear  what  I  said  ?  Stir  your 
stumps,  my  friend !  Double  time,  and  forward  ! " 

Imagine  my  horror  when  the  engineer  shouted 
back  in  a  voice  of  blank  dismay,  "  I  can't,  sir. 
She  won't  work.  Don't  answer  to  the  valve. 
We've  injured  something  in  backing  her  off  the 
reef  there." 

This  was  an  awkward  job.  And  at  such  a 
crisis,  too  !  In  a  minute  I  was  down  in  the 


A   BREAK-DOWN.  8 1 

engine-room  myself,  inspecting  all  the  valves 
and  bearings  with  lamp  in  hand,  and  with  the 
closest  scrutiny.  Before  long  we  had  ascer- 
tained the  extent  of  the  injury.  A  piece  of  the 
engine  was  broken  that  would  certainly  take  us 
six  or  eight  hours  to  repair.  And  it  was  already 
two  o'clock  on  the  Wednesday  morning ! 

But  that  wasn't  all,  either.  Another  serious 
difficulty  beset  us  in  our  work.  We  were  beat- 
ing about  in  the  angry  sea  off  the  Caycos  Reef, 
with  the  breakers  dashing  in,  and  the  surf 
running  high.  If  we  tried  to  mend  the  broken 
engine  where  we  stood,  we  should  infallibly  be 
dashed  to  pieces  on  the  dangerous  shallows. 
You  can't  go  to  work  like  that  on  a  lee  shore, 
with  no  engine  to  fall  back  upon,  and  the  wind 
blowing  half  a  gale.  The  only  thing  possible 
for  us  was  to  hoist  sail  and  make  for  the  open 
sea  to  southward  under  all  canvas.  That  was 
taking  us  further  away  from  Tanaki,  of  course ; 
but  it  was  our  one  chance  of  getting  our  engine 
repaired  in  peace  and  quiet. 


82  A    BREAK-DOWN. 

So  we  hoisted  sail  and  stood  out  to  sea  once 
more,  leaving  the  dim  long  line  of  surf  gradually 
behind  us  on  the  lee,  and  beating  by  constant 
tacks  against  the  wind,  which  had  now  veered 
to  the  southeast,  and  was  blowing  us  straight 
on  to  the  Caycos  shallows. 

By  four  o'clock  we'd  got  so  far  out  that  we 
thought  we  might  lie  to  a  bit  and  take  a  few 
hands  off  navigating  duty  to  assist  the  engineer 
in  reparing  his  engine. 

But  it  proved  a  much  more  difficult  and 
lengthy  task  to  retrieve  the  mischief  than  we 
had  at  first  sight  at  all  anticipated.  The  min- 
utes went  by  with  appalling  rapidity.  Five 
o'clock  came,  and  the  smith  was  only  just 
getting  his  iron  well  hammered  into  shape. 
Six  o'clock,  and  the  engineer  was  still  fitting 
the  place  it  came  from.  Seven  o'clock  —  some- 
thing wrong,  surely,  with  the  ship's  time  !  Be- 
fore this  hour  I  had  hoped  to  be  anchored  off 
the  harbor  of  Tanaki. 

Seven  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning ;   and 


A    BREAK-DOWN.  83 

by  twelve  at  noon,  so  the  boys  assured  us,  the 
ovens  would  be  made  hot  at  Taranaka's  tomb  for 
those  unfortunate  prisoners  on  the  remote 
island  ! 

Oh,  how  frantically  we  worked  for  the  next 
two  hours !  and  how  remorselessly  everything 
seemed  to  turn  against  us !  How  is  it  that 
whenever  one's  in  the  greatest  hurry  all  nature 
seems  to  conspire  to  defeat  one's  purpose  ?  I 
won't  attempt  to  explain  to  you  all  the  petty 
mishaps  and  unfortunate  failures  that  attended 
our  efforts.  It  seemed  as  if  iron,  wood,  and 
coal  — all  inanimate  matter  itself  — was  banded 
together  to  make  our  further  approach  to 
Tanaki  impossible.  By  nine  o'clock  I  knew  the 
worst  myself.  The  breakdown  to  the  engine  was 
far  more  serious  than  we  had  at  first  imagined. 
I  felt  sure  that  before  noon  at  earliest,  with  all 
our  skill  and  toil,  we  couldn't  possibly  repair  it. 

But  I  shrank  from  telling  those  two  poor 
trembling  lads  that  there  was  no  hope  now  left 
of  saving  their  parents. 


84  A    BREAK-DOWN. 

Gradually,  however,  as  the  day  wore  on,  they 
discovered  it  themselves  —  they  saw  that  the 
golden  opportunity  had  been  lost  for  us.  As 
each  hour  passed  by  they  told  us  with  ever  re- 
doubled horror  what  they  knew  must  at  that 
moment  be  passing  on  the  island.  Now  the 
savages  would  be  bringing  their  father  out  be- 
fore the  prison  hut,  and  sacrificing  him  with 
their  tomahawks  by  the  hideous  blood-stained 
altar  of  their  great  dead  chieftain.  Now  their 
poor  mother  would  be  crouching  on  the  ground, 
trying  in  vain  to  protect  their  helpless  little 
brother.  Now  Miriam  herself,  little  golden- 
haired,  three-year-old,  innocent  Miriam  —  but 
at  that  last  horror  they  broke  down  in  tears,  and 
could  say  no  more.  They  could  only  sob  and 
hide  their  faces  in  their  hands  with  speechless 
agony  at  that  unspeakable  picture. 

By  noon  we  knew  the  worst  must  be  over. 
They  were  at^  rest  now,  poor  souls,  from  their 
month-long  misery.  The  afternoon  dragged  on 
and  we  still  worked  hard  on  the  mere  chance 


A    BREAK-DOWN.  85 

of  some  respite  which  might  enable  us  to  rescue 
them.  But  we  felt  sure  the  end  had  come  for 
all  that.  We  worked  away  by  the  mere  force  of 
pure  aimless  energy.  It  distracted  us  from  think- 
ing of  the  awful  events  which  we  nevertheless  in 
our  hearts  felt  certain  must  have  happened. 

It  was  eight  at  night  before  we  got  the 
Albatross  fairly  under  way  again  ;  and  even 
then  she  lumbered  slowly,  slowly  on,  the  engine 
being  only  somehow  repaired,  in  the  most 
clumsy  fashion,  till  we  could  reach  harbor  once 
more,  and  quietly  overhaul  her. 

So  we  steamed  ahead,  feebly  and  cautiously, 
all  night  long,  keeping  a  sharp  lookout  for  land 
across  our  bows,  and  with  Martin  on  deck  al- 
most all  the  time,  to  aid  us  by  his  close  personal 
knowledge  of  the  island  approaches. 

Wednesday  the  tenth  was  over  now.  The 
terrible  day  had  come  and  gone.  We  didn't 
doubt  that  the  massacre  was  completed  long 
before  the  clock  struck  one  on  Thursday 
morning. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ON    THE    ISLAND. 

AT  Tanaki  meanwhile,  as  we  afterwards 
learned  by  inquiry  among  the  islanders, 
things  had  been  going  on  with  the  unhappy 
missionary  very  much  as  our  worst  fears  had 
led  us  to  expect.  Though  I  wasn't  there  at 
the  time  to  see  for  myself,  I  got  to  know  what 
happened  a  little  later  almost  as  well  as  if  I'd 
been  on  the  spot ;  so  I  shall  take  the  liberty 
once  more  —  not  being  one  of  these  book-mak- 
ing chaps — of  telling  my  story  my  own  way, 
and  explaining  how  matters  went  in  rough  sailor 
fashion,  without  trying  to  let  you  know  in  detail 
how  we  found  it  all  out  till  I  come  to  explain 
the  upshot  of  our  present  adventures. 

Well,  on  the   night  when   Martin   and  Jack 
86 


ON    THE    ISLAND.  87 

stole  away  from  the  hut  and  got  clear  off  on 
their  venturesome  journey  in  the  mission  boat, 
their  father  and  mother,  with  little  Calvin,  who 
was  eight  years  old,  and  Miriam,  who  was  a 
pretty  wee  lassie  of  three,  were  heavily  guarded 
by  half  a  dozen  desperate  and  drunken  savages 
in  the  temple-tomb  of  the  deceased  Taranaka. 
It  was  a  thatched  native  grass-house,  with  a  bare 
mud  floor,  and  a  rough  altar-slab  raised  high  on 
the  threshold,  which  covered  the  remains  of  the 
blood-thirsty  old  chieftain  —  the  man  who  in  his 
early  youth  had  seen  "  Capitaney  Cook  "  when 
he  discovered  the  islands.  The  Melanesian 
natives,  I  ought  to  tell  you,  regard  their  dead 
ancestors  as  a  sort  of  gods  or  guardian  spirits, 
and  frequently  offer  up  food  and  drink  at  their 
graves  as  presents  to  appease  them.  Every 
morning  gifts  of  taro,  bread-fruit,  and  plantain 
were  laid  on  the  altar  by  Taranaka's  tomb  ;  and 
once  every  ten  days  a  little  square  gin,  mixed 
with  cocoa-milk,  was  poured  out  upon  the  rude 
slab  of  unsculptured  stone,  that  the  dead  chief's 


55  ON    THE    ISLAND. 

ghost  might  come  to  drink  of  it  and  be  satisfied. 
Wednesday  the  tenth  was  the  anniversary  of 
Taranaka's  death  (he  had  been  killed  in  a  fight 
with  some  neighboring  islanders,  who  fell  out 
with  him  over  the  wreck  of  an  American  whalv 
ing  vessel),  and  it  was  on  that  festival  day  that 
the  chief  proposed  offering  up  the  blood  of  our 
fellow-countrymen  as  an  expiation  to  the  shades 
of  his  departed  relative. 

Macglashin  and  his  wife  never  even  knew  that 
the  boys  had  escaped.  If  they  had,  those  long 
days  of  suspense  might  have  been  even  worse  for 
them.  They  might  have  been  looking  forward 
with  mad  hope  to  some  miracle  of  rescue  such 
as  that  which  the  Albatross  had  so  boldly  plan- 
ned, and  which  had  been  so  cruelly  interfered 
with  by  the  breakdown  of  our  machinery.  As 
it  was,  the  savages  carefully  kept  from  them  all 
knowledge  of  their  boys'  escape.  They  never 
even  breathed  a  hint  of  that  desperate  voyage. 
Every  day,  on  the  contrary,  when  they  brought 
the  unhappy  missionary  and  his  wife  their  daily 


ON    THE    ISLAND.  89 

rations  of  yam  and  banana,  they  taunted  them 
with  threats  of  what  tortures  the  Chief  had 
still  in  store  for  Jack  and  Martin.  They  were 
fatting  them  up,  they  said,  for  Taranaka  to 
feed  upon.  On  Taranaka's  day  they  would  be 
offered  up  as  victims  on  the  cannibal  altar. 

But  the  most  terrible  part  of  all  the  poor 
father  and  mother's  sufferings  was  the  fact  that 
they  couldn't  keep  the  knowledge  of  that  awful 
fate  in  store  for  them  even  from  Calvin  and 
pretty  little  Miriam.  Macglashin's  diary,  which 
I  read  later  on,  was  just  heartrending  about 
the  children.  Those  helpless  mites  cowered  all 
day  long  on  the  bare  mud  floor  of  that  hideous 
temple,  awaiting  the  horrible  doom  that  the 
savages  held  out  before  them  with  the  painful 
resignation  of  innocent  childhood.  They  were 
too  frightened  to  cry  over  it ;  too  frightened  to 
talk  of  it ;  they  only  crouched  pale  and  terrified 
by  their  mother's  side,  and  dragged  out  the 
long  day  in  horrible  apprehensions.  They 
knew  they  must  die,  and  they  sat  there  watching 


go  ON   THE    ISLAND. 

for  that  inevitable  sentence  to  be  carried  out 
with  the  stoical  fortitude  of  utter  childish  help- 
lessness. Well,  there  —  I'm  an  old  hand  on 
the  sea,  you  know,  and  I  don't  mind  the  dan- 
gers of  the  wind  and  waves  for  grown  men  and 
boys  that  can  look  after  themselves,  any  more 
than  most  of  you  land-folks  mind  dodging  about 
in  the  Strand  at  Charing  Cross  on  a  crowded 
afternoon  in  the  London  season ;  but  I  can't 
bear  to  talk  or  even  to  think  of  what  those 
poor  children  suffered  all  those  terrible  days  in 
the  heathen  tomb-house.  There  are  things 
that  make  a  man's  blood  run  cold  to  speak 
about.  That  makes  mine  run  cold :  I  can't 
dwell  on  it  any  longer;  it's  too  ghastly  to 
realize. 

So  there  —  the  days  went  by,  one  after  another ; 
and  Monday  the  eighth  came,  and  Tuesday  the 
ninth,  and  still  no  chance  of  escape  or  rescue. 
Up  to  the  last  moment,  Macglashin  hoped  (as 
he  says  in  the  diary)  that  some  miracle  might 
occur  to  set  them  free,  some  interposition  of 


ON    THE    ISLAND.  91 

Providence  on  their  behalf  to  prevent  the  last 
misfortune  from  overtaking  his  poor  pallid  little 
Miriam.  Perhaps  the  mission  ship,  that  went 
her  rounds  twice  a  year,  might  happen  to  put 
in,  out  of  due  season,  with  some  special  mes- 
sage or  under  stress  of  weather ;  or  perhaps 
some  whaling  vessel  or  some  English  gunboat 
might  arrive  in  the  nick  of  time  in  the  little 
harbor  of  Tanaki.  But  when  Tuesday  evening 
came,  and  no  help  had  arrived,  the  unhappy 
man's  heart  sank  within  him.  He  gave  up  that 
last  wild  hope  of  a  rescue  at  the  eleventh  hour, 
and  addressed  himself  to  die  with  what  courage 
he  could  muster. 

Ah  yes,  to  die  one's  self  is  all  easy  enough ; 
nobody  worth  his  salt  minds  that ;  but  to  see 
one's  wife  and  children  murdered  before  one's 
eyes  —  there,  I'm  a  rough  sort  of  sailor-body, 
as  I  said  before,  but  you  must  excuse  my  break- 
ing off.  I  haven't  got  the  strength  to  hold  my 
pen  and  write  about  it.  Why,  I've  a  boy  of 
my  own  at  school  at  Sydney,  and  my  Mary's  in 


92  ON    THE    ISLAND. 

England,  bless  her  little  heart !  at  a  lady's  col- 
lege they  call  it  nowadays  ;  and  I  know  what  it 
means  ;  I  know  what  it  means,  gentlemen.  I'd 
no  more  expose  those  two  dear  children  in  the 
places  I've  been  among  the  islands  myself,  than 
—  well,  than  I'd  send  them  to  sea  alone  in  a  cock- 
boat. And  my  heart  just  bleeds  for  that  poor 
father  at  Tanaki,  when  I  read  his  diary  over 
again,  though  I  haven't  got  the  skill  to  put  it 
all  down  in  words  at  full  length  as  one  of  those 
fellows  would  do  that  write  for  the  newspapers. 
However,  on  Tuesday  night,  neither  Mac- 
glashin  himself  nor  Mrs.  Macglashin  could  get 
a  wink  of  sleep,  as  you  may  easily  imagine. 
They  sat  up  in  the  temple,  with  their  backs 
against  the  wall,  and  relays  of  black  fellows, 
armed  with  Sniders,  and  smeared  with  red  paint, 
watching  them  closely  all  the  while,  to  see  they 
didn't  escape  or  try  to  do  away  with  themselves. 
But  Calvin  fell  asleep  out  of  pure  fatigue  on 
his  mother's  lap,  and  Miriam,  poor  little  soul, 
lay  against  her  father's  shoulder,  dozing  as 


ON    THE    ISLAND.  93 

peacefully  as  ever  she  dozed  in  her  own  small 
cot  at  the  mission-house,  where  she  was  born. 
Once  the  thought  came  into  her  father's  mind, 
oughtn't  he  to  twist  his  handkerchief  round  her 
soft  little  throat,  as  she  lay  there  all  unconscious 
in  his  circling  arms,  to  save  her  from  the  tender 
mercies  of  those  cruel  black  savages  ?  How 
could  he  tell  what  torments  they  might  inflict 
upon  her  ?  Wasn't  it  better  she  should  be 
spared  all  that  horror  of  fear  ?  Wasn't  it  bet- 
ter she  should  just  sleep  away  her  dear  little 
life  without  ever  knowing  it,  till  she  woke  next 
morning  in  a  happier  and  a  brighter  country? 
But  in  another  minute  his  heart  recoiled  from 
the  terrible  thought.  While  there  was  still  one 
chance  of  safety  he  must  let  things  take  their 
course.  Perhaps  even  those  black  monsters 
might  have  pity  at  the  last  on  that  one  ewe 
lamb.  Perhaps  they  might  spare  his  Miriam's 
life,  and  make  her  over  to  the  mission-ship  when 
it  next  arrived  on  its  rounds  at  the  island. 
All  that  night  long  the  savages,  for  their  part, 


94  ON   THE   ISLAND. 

were  holding  a  sing-sing,  as  they  call  it,  close  by, 
and  the  hideous  noise  of  their  heathenish 
revels  could  be  distinctly  heard  by  the  watchers 
in  the  temple.  They  danced  to  the  music  of 
their  hollow  drums,  while  the  shells  upon  their 
ankles  resounded  in  unison.  At  times  the  echo 
of  horrible  laughter  fell  harsh  upon  the  ear. 
The  natives,  covered  with  red  feathers  and 
smeared  with  blood,  were  keeping  high  festival, 
as  is  their  horrid  custom.  And  as  the  long 
hours  wore  away,  the  din  of  their  revelry  be- 
came more  wild  in  their  orgies  each  moment. 

Morning  dawned  at  last  —  the  morning  of 
Wednesday  the  tenth,  when  that  awful  deed  of 
bloodshed  was  to  be  done  before  the  open  eye 
of  heaven  ;  and  with  the  first  streak  of  light  the 
poor  children  awoke  and  gazed  around  them 
blankly  at  their  temple  prison.  The  black 
watchers  brought  them  yam  and  mammee- 
apples  once  more,  but  they  couldn't  eat ;  they 
sat  bewildered  and  mute,  with  their  hands 
clasped  in  their  parents'  palms,  waiting  for  the 


ON   THE   ISLAND.  95 

end,  and  too  dazed  and  terrified  almost  to  know 
what  was  passing. 

About  six  o'clock  the  Chief  came  down  to 
the  temple,  with  bloodshot  eyes  and  tottering 
feet,  attended  by  half  a  dozen  naked  black  fol- 
lowers. They  had  all  been  drinking  the  greater 
part  of  the  night  at  the  sing-sing,  for  the  French- 
men had  left  plenty  of  square  gin  behind  ;  and 
they  rollicked  in  the  cruel  good-humor  of  the 
born  savage. 

"  How  do,  Macglashin  ?  "  the  Chief  inquired 
with  a  hateful  leer.  "  How  do,  white  woman  ? 
Taranaka  day  come  at  last.  How  you  like  him 
this  morning  ?  What  for  you  no  tell  man  a 
Tanaki  sooner  you  don't  know  Englishman  ? 
Ha !  ha !  dat  true  ;  so  him  see.  Queenie  Eng- 
land no  care  for  Scotchman." 

"  If  you  dare  to  touch  a  hair  of  our  heads," 
Macglashin  cried  in  his  despair,  rising  up  and 
facing  the  savage  angrily,  "  sooner  or  later,  I  tell 
you,  the  Queen  of  England  will  hear  of  it,  and 
she'll  send  a  gunboat  to  punish  you  for  our 


96  ON   THE   ISLAND. 

death,  and  her  sailors  '11  shoot  you  all  down  for 
your  part  in  this  murder." 

The  Chief  laughed  —  a  wild,  horrible,  bar- 
baric laugh.  "  Ha!  ha!  "  he  answered.  "  Dat 
all  very  fine  for  try  frighten  me.  But  man  a 
oui-oui  tell  me  you  no  true  Englishman.  You 
speakee  English,  but  you  Scotchman  born.  All 
samee  American.  Queenie  England  no  care  for 
American,  no  care  for  Scotch  ;  no  send  her  gun- 
boat for  look  after  Scotchman.  Man  a  Tanaki 
go  for  eat  you  to-day,  for  do  honor  to  ghost  a 
Taranaka." 

Macglashin  saw  that  words  would  produce  no 
effect  upon  the  tipsy  and  excited  wretch;  he 
must  make  up  his  mind  for  the  worst.  There 
was  no  help  for  it. 

"  At  least,"  he  cried,  "  Chief,  you'll  let  us 
say  good-by  to  our  boys  before  we  die  ?  You'll 
bring  them  in  for  their  mother  and  me  to  take 
our  last  farewell  of  them  ?  " 

The  Chief  shook  his  head  and  made  a  hideous 
grimace.  "  No  say  good-by  to  boys,"  he  said, 


ON   THE   ISLAND.  97 

with  horrible  glee.  "  Man  a  Tanaki  kill  pig  all 
night ;  kill  Scotchman  in  morning.  Kill  baby 
first ;  then  boy  ;  then  mother.  Last  of  all,  kill 
you  yourself,  Macglashin.  Taranaka  very  much 
love  white  man's  blood.  Great  day  to-day  for 
feast  for  Taranaka."  And  he  went  off  again,  grin- 
ning in  hideous  buffoonery,  while  Macglasin's 
soul  seethed  in  speechless  indignation. 

For  half  an  hour  more  they  were  left  undis- 
turbed. Then  the  Chief  appeared  at  the  door 
once  more,  and  beckoning  with  his  long  black 
forefinger,  called  to  the  missionary  — 

"  Come  out,  Macglashin  ! " 

The  unhappy  man  strode  out  with  little 
Miriam  half-fainting  in  his  arms. 

"  Come  out,  white  woman ! "  the  savage  cried 
once  more. 

The  pale  mother,  almost  unable  to  totter  with 
terror,  made  her  way  to  the  door,  with  Calvin's 
fingers  intertwined  in  her  own. 

"  Now,  white  people,  we  going  to  shoot  you," 
the  savage  continued,  unabashed.  "  You  make 


98  ON   THE    ISLAND. 

too  much  trouble  for  man  a  Tanakl.  Interfere 
too  much  with  man  who  sell  him  boy  or  him 
woman.  Me  don't  going  to  kill  you  with  axe, 
like  Taranaka  kill  first  missionary  that  come  a 
Tanaki.  Man  a  oui-oui  sell  me  plenty  Snider. 
Man  a  Tanaki  want  to  try  him  shooting-irons. 
Set  you  up  to  run,  and  then  go  fire  at  you." 

At  the  word  he  nodded,  and  four  stalwart 
savages  caught  Macglashin  in  their  arms  and 
held  him  to  a  line  drawn  lightly  in  the  dust  by 
the  Chief's  stick.  At  the  same  moment  four 
others  caught  his  unhappy  wife,  and  dragged 
her,  half  senseless,  to  the  self-same  line.  The 
two  children  were  ranged  by  their  sides,  pale 
and  white  with  terror.  Then  the  Chief  walked 
forward,  and  drew  another  line  some  forty 
yards  in  front  of  them  with  his  stick  again. 
"When  Chief  call  'go,'  "  he  called  out,  "  man  a 
Tanaki  let  go  missionary,  and  boy,  and  white 
woman.  Missionary  run  till  him  reach  dis  line. 
Man  a  Tanaki  no  shoot  till  missionary  pass  dis 
line.  Den  man  a  Tanaki  fire  ;  missionary  run  ; 


ON   THE    ISLAND.  99 

man  a  Tanaki  run  after  missionary  to  kill  him. 
Whoever  shoot  missionary  or  white  woman  first, 
give  him  body  up  in  temple  to  Taranaka." 

As  he  spoke,  the  savages  ranged  themselves 
behind,  Sniders  in  hand.  The  Chief  placed 
himself  in  order  at  their  head  on  the  right. 
Then  he  called  out  in  Kanaka,  "  When  I  give 
the  word  —  'one,  two,  three'  —  loose  them! 
When  I  give  the  word  Fire !  off  with  your  rifles 
at  them." 

There  was  a  deadly  pause.  All  was  still  as 
death.  Then  the  Chief  cried  aloud,  "  One  — 
two  —  three  —  loose  them!"  and  the  savages 
loosed  the  poor  terrified  Europeans. 

Even  in  that  supreme  moment  of  agony  and 
doubt,  however,  one  thought  kept  rising  ever  in 
the  father's  and  mother's  heart.  What  had 
become  of  Jack  and  Martin  ? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

IT  was  Thursday  the  eleventh,  in  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning.  The  Albatross  was 
lumbering  along  as  best  she  might  with  her 
broken  engine,  and  we  were  nearing  the  line  of 
1 80°.  We  weren't  making  much  way,  however, 
for  the  speed  was  low  ;  and  we  hadn't  so  much 
reason  for  hurrying  now,  for  we  felt  almost 
hopeless  of  being  in  time  to  prevent  the  threat- 
ened massacre.  Our  people,  we  feared,  had 
long  since  fallen  victims  to  the  superstition  and 
bloodthirstiness  of  the  ungrateful  savages. 

I  was  asleep  in  my  berth  after  the  fatigues  of 

the  day,  and  was  dreaming  of  my  dear  little 

girl  in  England  ;  when  suddenly  I  felt  a  clammy 

cold  hand  laid  upon  my  own  outside  the  cover- 

100 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  lOt 

let,  and  waking  with  a  start,  I  saw  Martin 
Luther  standing  pale  and  white  in  his  blue 
shirt  and  trousers  before  me.  I  knew  at  once 
by  his  face  something  fresh  had  turned  up. 

"Goodness  gracious,  boy,"  I  exclaimed, 
"  what  on  earth's  the  matter  now  ? " 

"  Captain  Braithwaite,"  he  answered  with 
very  solemn  seriousness,  "  I've  been  counting 
the  days  over  and  over  again,  and  I'm  quite  sure 
there's  a  mistake  somewhere.  We've  got  a  day 
wrong  in  our  reckoning,  I'm  certain.  I've 
counted  up  each  day  and  night  a  hundred  times 
over  since  we  left  Tanaki  in  the  boat  —  Jack 
and  I  —  and  I  feel  confident  you're  twenty-four 
hours  out  in  your  reckoning.  Yesterday  wasn't 
Wednesday  the  tenth  at  all.  It  was  Tuesday  the 
ninth,  and  we  may  yet  reach  Tanaki  in  time  to 
save  them." 

"  No,  no,  my  boy,"  I  answered,  "  you're 
wrong ;  you're  wrong.  Your  natural  anxiety 
about  your  father's  fate  has  upset  your  calcula- 
tions. To-day's  the  eleventh  ;  yesterday  was  the 


102  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

tenth.  Till  we  get  to  the  meridian  of  180°"  — 
and  then,  with  a  start,  I  broke  off  suddenly. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?  "  Martin  cried,  for  he 
saw  at  once  I  was  faltering  and  hesitating. 
"  Ah,  you  see  I  was  right  now.  You  see  this 
morning's  the  tenth,  don't  you?" 

In  a  moment  the  truth  flashed  across  me  with 
a  burst.  I  saw  it  all ;  the  only  wonder  was  how 
on  earth  I  had  failed  so  long  to  perceive  it.  I 
seized  the  poor  lad's  hand  in  a  fervor  of  delight, 
relief  and  exultation. 

"Martin,"  I  cried,  overjoyed,  "we  are  both 
of  us  right  in  our  own  way  of  reckoning.  This 
morning's  the  eleventh  on  board  the  Albatross 
here,  but  it's  the  tenth,  I  don't  doubt,  in  your 
island  at  Tanaki ! " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? "  he  cried,  astonished, 
and  gazing  at  me  as  if  he  thought  me  rather 
more  than  half-mad.  "  How  on  earth  can  it  be 
Thursday  here,  while  it's  Wednesday  at  Tanaki  ?" 

"  Hold  on  a  bit,  youngster,"  said  I,  jumping 
out  of  my  cabin,  "  till  I've  consulted  the  chart 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  103 

and  made  quite  sure  about  it.  Let  me  see. 
Here  we  are.  Duke  of  Cumberland's  Islands, 
179°  west.  Hooray!  Hooray!"  I  waved  the 
chart  round  my  head  in  triumph.  "  Jim,  Jim  !  " 
I  shouted  out,  rushing  up  the  companion-ladder 
in  my  night-shirt  as  I  stood  ;  "  here's  a  hope 
indeed !  Here's  splendid  news.  Put  on  all 
steam  at  once  and  we  may  save  them  yet. 
Tanaki's  the  other  side  of  180 !  " 

Jim  looked  at  me  in  astonishment. 

"  Why,  what  on  earth  do  you  mean,  Julian  ? " 
he  asked.  "  What  on  earth  has  that  to  do  with 
our  chance  of  saving  them  ? " 

"Jim,"  I  cried  once  more,  hardly  knowing 
how  to  contain  myself  with  excitement  and  re- 
action ;  "  was  there  ever  such  a  precious  pair  of 
fools  in  the  world  before  as  you  and  me,  my 
good  fellow?  It's  Wednesday  morning  in 
Tanaki,  man !  It's  Wednesday  in  Tanaki ! 
Tanaki's  the  other  side  of  180!" 

As  I  said  the  words,  Jim  jumped  at  me  like  a 
wild  creature  and  grasped  my  hand  hard.  Then 


104  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

he  caught  Martin  in  his  arms  and  hugged  him  as 
tight  as  if  he'd  been  his  own  father.  After  that 
he  threw  his  cap  up  in  the  air  and  shouted  aloud 
with  delight.  And  when  he'd  quite  finished  all 
those  remarkable  performances,  he  looked  hard 
into  my  face  and  burst  out  laughing. 

"Well,  upon  my  soul,  Julian,"  he  said,  "for 
a  couple  of  seasoned  old  Pacific  travelers,  I 
do  agree  with  you  that  a  pair  of  bigger  fools 
and  stupider  dolts  than  you  and  I  never  sailed 
the  ocean ! " 

"  If  it  had  been  our  first  voyage  across  now," 
I  said  to  Jim,  feeling  thoroughly  ashamed  of 
myself  for  my  silly  mistake,  "there  might  have 
been  some  excuse  for  us  ! " 

"Or  if  the  boy  hadn't  told  us  there  was  a 
discrepancy  in  the  accounts  the  very  first  day 
he  ever  came  aboard,"  he  added  solemnly. 

"  But  as  it  is,"  I  went  on,  "  such  a  scholar's 
mate,  such  a  beginner's  blunder  as  this  is  for 
two  seafaring  men  —  why,  it's  absolutely  in- 
excusable !  " 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  105 

"  Absolutely  inexcusable  !  "  Jim  repeated, 
penitently. 

"  But  if  we  clap  on  all  steam  we  may  get  there 
yet  on  Wednesday  morning,"  I  continued,  con- 
sulting my  watch. 

"  By  three  or  four  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morn- 
ing," Jim  echoed,  examining  the  chart  once 
more,  and  carefully  noting  the  ship's  position. 
"  Why,  it's  Wednesday  now,  Julian.  We've 
crossed  180°."  - 

"  But  what  day  was  yesterday  ? "  Martin  asked, 
all  trembling. 

"Why,  yesterday,"  I  answered,  "was  Wednes- 
day the  tenth,  my  boy ;  but  to-day  is  Wednesday 
the  tenth  also.  It  comes  twice  over  at  this 
longitude.  We've  gained  a  day ;  that's  the  long 
and  the  short  of  it.  We  ought  to  have  known 
it,  my  brother  and  I,  who  are  such  old  hands 
at  cruising  in  and  out  of  the  islands ;  but  our 
anxiety  and  distress  made  us  clean  forget  it." 

"  How  does  that  come  about  ?"  Martin  asked 
bewildered,  his  lips  white  as  death. 


106  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

"  Just  like  this,"  said  I.  "  Sailing  one  way, 
you  see,  from  England,  you  sail  with  the  sun ; 
and  sailing  the  other  way,  you  sail  against 
it.  In  one  direction  you  keep  gaining  time,  and 
in  the  other  you  lose  it." 

"The  meridian  of  180°  is  the  particular  place 
where  the  two  modes  of  reckoning  reach  their 
climax,"  I  hastened  to  add.  "  So,  when  you 
get  to  180°,  sailing  west,  you  lose  a  day,  and 
Saturday's  followed  right  off  by  Monday.  But 
sailing  east,  you  gain  a  day,  and  have  two  Sun- 
days running,  or  whatever  else  the  day  may  be 
when  you  happen  to  get  there.  Now,  we're 
going  in  the  right  direction  for  gaining  a  day; 
and  so,  though  yesterday  was  Wednesday  the 
tenth  the  other  side  of  180°,  to-day's  Wednesday 
the  tenth,  don't  you  see,  this  side  of  it  ?  And 
as  Tanaki's  this  side,  your  people  must  always 
have  reckoned  by  the  American  day,  so  to  speak, 
while  we've  reckoned  all  along  by  the  Australian 
one.  It's  this  morning  those  savages  threatened 
to  kill  your  father  and  mother,  and  if  we  make 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  107 

a  good  run,  we  shall  still  perhaps  be  in  time  to 
save  them." 

As  I  spoke,  the  boy's  knees  trembled  under 
him  with  excitement.  He  staggered  so  that  he 
caught  at  a  rope  for  support.  He  was  too  much 
in  earnest  to  cry,  but  the  tear$  stood  still  in  his 
eyes  without  falling. 

"Oh !  I  hope  to  Heaven  we'll  be  in  time,"  he 
answered.  "  We  may  save  them !  We  may  save 
them ! " 

I  went  below  and  turned  in  once  more  for  a 
little  sleep,  for  I  knew  I  should  be  wanted  later 
in  the  morning;  and  having  fortunately  the  true 
sailor's  habit  in  that  matter  of  dozing  off  when- 
ever occasion  occurred,  I  was  soon  snoring  away 
again  most  comfortably  on  my  pillow.  At  half- 
past  three,  Tom  Blake  came  down  once  more  to 
wake  me. 

"  Land  in  sight,  sir,"  he  said,  "on  our  starboard 
bow,  and  this  young  fellow  Martin  says  he  makes 
it  out  to  be  the  north  point  of  Tanaki." 

In  a  minute  I  was  on  deck  again,  and  peering 


I08  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

at  the  dim  land  through  the  gray  mist  of  morning 
—  the  same  gray  mist  through  which,  as  we 
afterwards  learned,  the  poor  creatures  in  the 
heathen  temple  saw  the  dawn  break  of  the  day 
that  was  to  end  their  earthly  troubles.  It  was 
Tanaki,  no  doubt,  for  Martin  was  quite  sure  he 
could  recognize  the  headlands  and  the  barrier 
reef.  Our  only  question  now  was  how  next  to 
proceed.  We  held  a  brief  little  council  of  war 
on  deck,  with  Martin  as  our  chief  adviser  on 
the  local  situation. 

From  what  he  told  us,  I  came  rapidly  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  would  be  useless  to  attempt  an 
open  entrance  into  the  little  harbor  of  Makilolo, 
where  the  Chief  had  his  hut,  and  where  the  mis- 
sion-people, as  we  believed,  were  still  confined 
in  the  temple.  To  do  so  would  only  be  to  arouse 
the  anger  of  the  savages  beforehand  ;  and  unless 
we  could  get  them  well  between  a  cross  fire,  and 
so  effectually  prevent  any  further  outrage,  we 
feared  they  might  massacre  the  unhappy  people 
in  their  hands  the  moment  we  hove  in  sight  to 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  1 09 

enter  the  harbor.  But  here  our  friend  Martin's 
local  knowledge  of  the  archipelago  helped  us 
out  of  our  difficulty.  He  could  pilot  us,  he 
said,  to  a  retired  bay  at  the  back  of  the  island, 
by  the  east  side,  where  we  could  land  a  small 
party  in  boats,  well  armed  with  Sniders  and  our 
Winchester  repeater;  and  Jack,  who  had  slept 
all  night,  and  was  therefore  the  fresher  of  the 
two,  would  show  us  a  path  through  the  thick 
tropical  underbrush  by  which  we  could  approach 
the  village  from  the  rear,  while  the  Albatross 
ran  round  again  with  the  remainder  of  the  crew, 
and  brought  our  brass  thirty-pounder  to  bear 
upon  the  savages  from  the  open  harbor. 

This  plan  was  at  once  received  with  universal 
approbation,  and  we  proceeded  forthwith  to  put 
it  into  execution. 

Steering  cautiously  round  the  island,  under 
cover  of  the  mist,  and  fortunately  unperceived 
by  the  assembled  natives,  who  were  too  much 
occupied  with  their  sing-sing  to  be  engaged  in 
scanning  the  offing,  we  reached  at  last  the  little 


110  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

retired  bay  of  which  Martin  had  spoken,  and 
got  ready  our  boat  to  land  our  military  party. 
It  was  ticklish  work,  for  we  could  afford  to 
land  only  ten,  all  told,  with  Jack  for  our  guide ; 
but  each  man  was  armed  with  a  good  rifle  and 
ammunition,  and  the  habit  of  discipline  made 
our  little  band,  we  believed,  more  than  a  match 
for  those  untutored  savages.  Nassaline,  also, 
joined  the  military  party,  while  seven  men  were 
left  as  a  naval  reserve.  Silently  and  cautiously 
we  landed  on  the  white  sandy  beach,  and  turned 
with  Jack  into  the  thick  tangled  brake  of  tropical 
brushwood. 

Meanwhile,  my  brother  Jim,  with  Martin  to 
guide  him,  undertook  to  take  the  Albatross  round 
to  the  regular  harbor;  for  Martin  fortunately 
knew  every  twist  and  turn  of  those  tortuous 
reef-channels,  having  been  accustomed  to  navi- 
gate them  from  his  childhood  upwards,  both 
in  the  mission-boat  and  in  the  native  canoes 
which  frequently  put  to  sea  for  the  beche-de-mer 
fishery. 


ERRORS    EXCEPTED.  Ill 

Our  plan  of  action,  as  arranged  beforehand, 
was  for  the  military  party  to  wait  about  in  the 
woods  at  the  back  of  the  village  till  the  Albatross 
hove  in  sight  off  the  mouth  of  the  harbor.  Then, 
the  moment  she  appeared,  she  was  to  fire  a 
blank  shot  towards  the  Chief's  hut  with  her 
thirty-pounder ;  and  at  the  same  moment,  we  of 
the  surprise  party  were  to  fall  upon  the  savages, 
and  before  they  could  recover  from  their  first 
surprise,  demand  the  instant  restitution  of  the 
missionary  and  his  family. 

Everything  depended  now  upon  the  two  boys. 
If  Jack  failed  to  show  us  the  path  aright — if 
Martin  drove  the  Albatross  upon  reef  or  rock  — 
all  would  be  up  with  us,  and  the  savages  would 
massacre  our  whole  party  in  cold  blood,  as  they 
proposed  to  do  with  Macglashin  and  his  little 
ones.  I  trembled  to  think  on  how  slender  a 
thread  those  four  precious  human  lives  depended. 
After  all,  -they  were  but  lads,  mere  children 
almost,  and  the  rash  confidence  of  youth  might 
easily  deceive  them.  But  I  decided,  none  the 


112  ERRORS    EXCEPTED. 

less,  to  trust  to  their  instincts  and  their  keen 
affection  for  their  friends  to  see  us  through  in 
our  need.  If  that  wouldn't  lead  us  right,  I  felt 
sure  in  my  own  soul  no  human  aid  could  possibly 
save  the  unhappy  prisoners. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HOT   WORK. 

JACK  led  us  from  the  beach  over  the  white 
coral  sand  straight  up  to  the  wood,  and 
after  looking  about  for  a  while  to  make  sure 
of  his  bearings  among  the  huge  fallen  logs, 
hit  at  last  upon  a  faint  trail  that  led  straggling 
through  the  forest  —  a  trail  scarcely  worn  into 
the  semblance  of  a  path  by  the  bare  feet  of 
naked  savages.  Following  his  guidance,  we 
plunged  at  once,  with  some  doubtful  misgivings, 
into  the  deep  gloom  of  the  woodland,  and  found 
ourselves  immediately  in  a  genuine  equatorial 
thicket,  where  mouldering  trunks  of  palms  en- 
cumbered the  vague  path,  and  great  rope-like 
lianas  hung  down  in  loops  from  the  trees  over- 
head, to  block  our  way  at  every  second  step 
"3 


114  HOT    WORK. 

through  that  fatiguing  underbrush.  The  day 
was  warm,  even  as  we  travelers  who  know  the 
world  judge  warmth  in  the  tropical  South 
Pacific;  and  the  moist  heat  of  that  basking, 
swampy  lowland,  all  laden  with  miasma  from 
the  decaying  leaves,  seemed  to  oppress  us  with 
its  deadly  effluvia  and  its  enervating  softness 
at  every  yard  we  went  through  the  jungle. 
Moreover,  we  had  to  carry  our  arms  and  ammu- 
nition among  that  tangled  brake  ;  and  as  our 
rifles  kept  catching  continually  in  the  creepers 
that  drooped  in  festoons  from  the  branches, 
while  our  feet  got  simultaneously  entangled  in 
the  roots  and  trailing  stems  that  straggled  un- 
derfoot, you  can  easily  imagine  for  yourself 
that  ours  was  indeed  no  pleasant  journey.  How- 
ever, we  persevered  with  dogged  English  perse- 
verance ;  the  sailors  tramped  on  and  wiped 
their  foreheads  with  their  sleeves  from  time  to 
time  ;  while  poor  Jack  marched  bravely  at  our 
head  with  an  indomitable  pluck  which  reflected 
the  highest  credit  on  Mr.  Macglashin's  training. 


HOT   WORK.  115 

The  only  one  who  seemed  to  make  light  of 
the  toil  was  our  black  boy,  Nassaline. 

We  went  single  file,  of  course,  along  the 
narrow  trail,  which  every  here  and  there  divided 
to  right  or  left  in  the  midst  of  the  brake  with 
most  puzzling  complexity.  At  every  such 
division  or  fork  in  the  track,  Jack  halted  for  a 
moment  and  cast  his  eye  dubiously  to  one  side 
and  the  other,  at  last  selecting  the  trail  that 
seemed  best  to  him.  Nassaline,  too,  helped  us 
not  a  little  by  his  savage  instinct  for  finding  his 
way  through  trackless  jungle.  For  my  own 
part,  I  could  never  have  believed  any  road  on 
earth  could  possibly  be  so  tortuous ;  and  at 
last,  at  the  end  of  the  twenty-fifth  turn  or  there- 
abouts, I  ventured  to  say  in  a  very  low  voice 
(for  we  were  stealing  along  in  dead  silence), 
"Why,  Jack,  I  believe  you're'leading  us  round 
and  round  in  a  circle,  and  you'll  bring  us  out 
again  in  the  end  at  the  very  same  bay  where 
we  first  landed  !  " 

"  Hush ! "  Jack  answered,  with  one  finger  on 


Il6  HOT   WORK. 

his  lip.  "  We're  drawing  near  the  outskirts  of 
the  village  now.  You  must  be  very  quiet.  I 
can  just  see  the  grass  roof  of  Taranaka's  temple 
peeping  above  the  brushwood  to  the  right.  In 
three  minutes  more  we  shall  be  out  in  the 
open." 

And  sure  enough  he  told  the  truth.  Almost 
as  he  ceased  speaking,  the  noise  of  savage 
voices  fell  full  upon  my  ear  from  the  village  in 
front,  and  I  could  hear  the  natives,  in  their 
hideous  corroboree,  beating  hard  upon  their 
hollow  drums  of  stretched  skin,  and  shouting 
in  the  dance  to  their  drunken  comrades. 

It  was  a  ghastly  noise,  but  it  did  our  hearts 
good  just  then  to  hear  it. 

I  could  almost  have  clapped  my  hand  upon 
Jack's  back  and  given  him  three  cheers  for  his 
gallant  guidance  when  we  saw  the  village  plot 
opening  up  in  front  of  us,  and  the  naked  sav- 
ages, in  their  war-paint  and  feathers,  guarding 
the  door  of  Taranaka's  temple.  But  the  neces- 
sity for  caution  compelled  me  to  preserve  a 


HOT   WORK.  117 

solemn  silence.  So  we  crouched  as  still  as 
mice  behind  a  clumpy  thicket  of  close-leaved 
tiro  bushes,  and  peeped  out  from  our  ambush 
through  the  dense  foliage  to  keep  an  eye  upon 
the  scene  till  the  Albatross  hove  into  sight  in 
the  harbor. 

"My  father  and  my  mother  must  still  be 
there,"  Jack  whispered  under  his  breath,  but 
in  a  deep  tone  of  relief.  "  The  Tanaki  men 
are  guarding  them  exactly  as  they  did  when 
Martin  and  I  left  the  island.  I  almost  think  I 
can  see  Miriam's  head  through  the  open  door. 
We  shall  be  in  time  still  to  deliver  them  from 
these  bloodthirsty  wretches." 

"  In  what  direction  must  we  look  for  the 
Albatross •?"  I  whispered  back.  "Will  she 
come  in  from  the  south  there  ? " 

"  O,  no !  "  Jack  answered  in  a  very  low  voice. 
"  That's  an  island  to  the  right  —  a  little  rocky 
island  that  guards  the  harbor.  There's  deep 
water  close  in  by  the  shore  that  side.  Martin 
'11  try  to  bring  her  in  the  northern  way,  so  that 


Il8  HOT   WORK. 

the  natives  mayn't  see  her  till  she's  close  upon 
the  village.  It's  a  difficult  channel  to  the  north, 
all  full  of  reefs  and  sunken  rocks ;  but  I  think 
he  understands  it,  he's  swam  in  it  so  often. 
We  won't  see  her  at  all  till  she's  right  in  the 
harbor  and  just  opposite  the  temple." 

We  were  dying  of  thirst  now,  and  longing  for 
drink,  but  could  get  nothing  to  quench  our 
drought.  "  What  I  would  give,"  I  muttered  to 
Tom  Blake,  "for  a  drink  of  water !  " 

"If  Captain  want  water,"  Nassaline  answered, 
"me  soon  get  him  some."  And  he  made  a  gash 
with  his  knife  in  the  stem  of  a  sort  of  gourd 
that  climbed  over  the  bushes,  from  which  there 
slowly  oozed  and  trickled  out  a  sort  of  gummy 
juice  that  relieved  to  some  degree  our  oppres- 
sive sensations.  All  the  men  began  at  once 
cutting  and  chewing  it,  with  considerable  satis- 
faction. It  wasn't  as  good  as  a  glass  of  British 
beer,  I  will  freely  admit ;  but  still,  it  was  better 
than  nothing,  any  way. 

By  this  time  it  was  nearly  half-past  six,  and 


HOT   WORK.  IIQ 

we  watched  eagerly  to  see  what  action  the 
natives  would  take  as  soon  as  they  finished 
their  night-long  sing-sing.  Lying  flat  on  the 
ground,  with  our  rifles  ready  at  hand,  and  our 
heads  just  raised  to  look  out  among  the  foliage, 
we  kept  observing  their  movements  cautiously 
through  the  thick  brushwood. 

At  a  quarter  to  seven  we  saw  some  bustle 
and  commotion  setting  in  on  a  sudden  in  front 
of  the  temple;  and  presently  a  tall  and  sinister- 
looking  native,  who,  Jack  whispered  to  me,  was 
the  Chief  of  Tanaki,  came  up  from  the  village, 
where  the  sing-sing  had  taken  place,  and  stood  by 
the  door  of  the  thatched  grass-house.  We  could 
distinctly  hear  him  call  the  missionary  to  come 
out  in  pigeon  English ;  and  next  moment  our  un- 
fortunate countryman  staggered  forth,  with  his 
little  daughter  half  fainting  in  his  arms,  and 
stood  out  in  the  bare  space  between  the  tomb  of 
Taranaka  and  the  spot  where  we  were  lying. 

Oh !  how  I  longed  to  take  a  shot  at  that 
miscreant  black  fellow. 


120  HOT   WORK. 

At  sight  of  his  father,  worn  with  fatigue  and 
pale  with  the  terror  of  that  agonizing  moment, 
Jack  almost  cried  aloud  in  his  mingled  joy  and 
apprehension  ;  but  I  clapped  my  hand  on  his 
mouth  and  kept  him  still  for  the  moment.  "  Not 
a  sound,  my  boy,  not  a  sound,"  I  whispered  low, 
"till  the  time  comes  for  firing  !" 

"  Shall  we  give  it  them  hot  now?"  Tom  Blake 
inquired  low  at  my  ear  next  moment.  But  I 
waved  him  aside  cautiously. 

"Not  yet,"  I  answered,  "unless  the  worst 
comes  to  the  worst,  and  we  see  our  people  in 
pressing  and  immediate  danger;  we'd  better 
do  nothing  till  the  Albatross  heaves  in  sight. 
Her  gun  will  frighten  them.  To  fire  now  would 
be  to  expose  ourselves  and  our  friends  there  to 
unnecessary  danger." 

"  All  right,  sir,"  Tom  murmured  low  in  reply. 
"You  know  best,  of  course.  But  I  must  say, 
it'd  do  my  'eart  good  to  up  an'  pepper  'em !" 

"  Come  out,  white  woman ! "  we  heard  the 
Chief  say  next  with  insolent  familiarity;  and 


HOT    WORK.  121 

Mrs.  Macglashin  stepped  out,  a  deplorable  fig- 
ure, with  her  boy's  hand  twined  in  hers,  and 
her  white  lips  twitching  with  horror  for  her 
little  ones.  It  made  one's  blood  boil  so  to  see 
it  that  we  could  hardly  resist  the  temptation  as 
we  looked  to  fire  at  all  hazards,  and  let  them 
know  good  friends  were  even  now  close  at  hand 
to  help  and  deliver  them. 

"Whether  the  Albatross  heaves  in  sight  or 
not,"  I  whispered  to  Tom  Blake,  "  we  must  fire 
at  them  soon  —  within  five  minutes  —  and  sell 
our  lives  as  dearly  as  we  can.  I  can't  stand 
this  much  longer.  It's  too  terrible  a  strain. 
Come  what  may,  I  must  give  the  word  and  at 
them  ! " 

"  Quite  right,  sir,"  says  Tom.  "  What's  the 
use  of  delaying  ?" 

And,  indeed,  I  began  to  be  terribly  afraid  by 
this  time  there  was  something  very  wrong  in- 
deed somewhere.  Could  Martin  have  missed 
his  way  among  those  difficult  shoals,  and  run 
our  trusty  vessel  helplessly  on  the  rocks  and 


122  HOT   WORK. 

reefs  ?  It  looked  very  like  it.  They  were  cer- 
tainly overdue;  for  even  at  the  present  crippled 
rate  of  speed,  the  good  old  Albatross  had  had 
plenty  of  time,  I  judged,  to  round  the  point  and 
get  back  safe  again  into  the  deep  water  of  the 
harbor.  If  she  failed  in  this  our  hour  of  need, 
the  natives  would  surround  us  and  cut  us  to 
pieces  in  a  mass ,  for  our  best  reliance  was  in 
our  solid  brass  thirty-pounder.  I  began  to 
tremble  in  my  shoes  for  some  time  for  the  pos- 
sible upshot.  Over  and  over  again  I  glanced 
eagerly  towards  the  point  for  that  longed-for 
white  nose  of  hers  to  appear  round  the  corner. 

At  last,  unable  to  restrain  my  curiosity  any 
longer,  I  rose  to  my  feet  and  peered  across  the 
bushes.  As  I  did  so,  I  saw  the  savages  seize 
Macglashin  in  their  arms,  and  range  the  four 
poor  fugitives  in  a  line  together.  My  blood 
curdled.  The  Chief  and  the  ten  savages  with 
the  Sniders  stood  in  a  row,  half  fronting  us 
where  we  lay.  Macglashin  and  his  wife  were 
fortunately  out  of  line  of  fire  for  our  rifles. 


HOT   WORK.  123 

"  Now,  we  can  delay  no  longer,"  I  cried.  "  He 
means  murder.  The  moment  the  black  fellow 
gives  the  word  of  command,  fire  at  once  upon 
him  and  his  men,  boys.  Take  steady  aim.  No 
matter  what  comes.  Let  the  poor  souls  have  a 
run  for  their  lives,  any  way." 

As  I  spoke,  the  Chief  uttered  in  Kanaka  the 
native  words  for  "  One,  two,  three,"  with  loud 
drunken  laughter. 

At  the  sound  of  the  Chief's  voice,  the  savages 
loosed  the  four  wretched  Europeans.  At  the 
very  same  sound  we  all  fired  simultaneously — 
and  six  of  the  black  monsters  fell  writhing  on 
the  ground,  while  the  Chief  and  the  four  others, 
taken  completely  by  surprise,  dropped  their  rifles 
in  their  supreme  astonishment. 

"Forward,  boys,  and  secure  them  !"  I  cried, 
dashing  out  into  the  open,  and  waving  my  hat 
to  the  astounded  missionary.  "  Here  we  are,  sir. 
Run  this  way!  We're  friends.  We've  come  to  "' 
your  rescue.  Catch  the  Chief  at  once,  lads ; 
and  hooray  for  the  Albatross  !  " 


124  HOT   WORK. 

For  just  as  I  spoke,  to  my  joy  and  relief,  her 
good  white  nose  showed  at  last  round  the  point; 
and  next  instant,  the  boom !  boom  !  of  her  jolly 
brass  thirty-pounder,  fired  in  the  very  nick  of 
time,  completed  the  discomfiture  of  the  aston- 
ished savages. 

Before  they  knew  where  they  were,  they  found 
themselves  hemmed  in  between  a  raking  cross- 
fire from  our  Sniders  on  one  side,  and  the  heavy 
gun  of  the  Albatross  on  the  other.  The  tables 
were  now  completely  turned.  We  charged  at 
them,  running.  Macglashin,  seizing  the  situa- 
tion at  a  glance,  caught  up  one  of  the  rifles 
belonging  to  the  wounded  men,  which  had 
been  flung  upon  the  ground,  and,  hardly  yet 
realizing  his  miraculous  escape,  joined  our  little 
party  as  an  armed  recruit  with  surprising  alac- 
rity. For  the  next  ten  minutes  there  was  a 
terrible  scene  of  noise  and  confusion.  The 
blacks  advanced  upon  us,  swarming  up  from 
the  village  like  bees  or  wasps,  and  it  was  only 
by  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with  our  bayonets  — 


HOT   WORK.  125 

for  we  had  fortunately  brought  them  in  case  of 
close  quarters  —  that  we  kept  our  dusky  enemy 
at  bay.  At  last,  however,  after  a  smart  hand- 
to-hand  contest,  we  secured  the  Chief,  and  tied 
him  safely  with  the  rope  he  had  loosed  from 
Macglashin.  Then  we  seized  the  remaining 
Sniders  that  lay  upon  the  ground,  while  the 
men  of  the  village,  drunk  and  stupefied,  began 
to  fall  back  a  little  and  molest  us  from  a 
distance. 

"  Now,  put  the  lady  and  children  in  the  cen- 
ter, boys,"  I  cried,  at  the  top  of  my  voice,  "  and 
let  the  Chief  march  along  with  us  as  a  hostage. 
Down  to  the  shore,  while  the  Albatross  boat 
puts  out  to  save  us  !  "  Then  I  turned  to  the 
savages,  and  called  out  in  English,  "  If  any  one 
of  you  dares  to  fire  at  us,  I  give  you  fair  warn- 
ing, we  shoot  your  Chief !  Hold  off  there,  all 
of  you  ! " 

To  my  great  delight,  Nassaline,  standing  for- 
ward as  I  spoke,  translated  my  words  to  them 
into  their  own  tongue,  and  waving  them  back 


126  HOT   WORK. 

with  his  hands  made  a  little  alley  for  us  through 
the  midst  to  regain  the  shore  by.  Smart  boy, 
Nassaline  ! 

After  a  moment,  however,  the  natives  once 
more  began  to  crowd  round  us,  as  we  started  to 
march,  in  very  threatening  attitudes,  with  their 
Sniders  and  hatchets.  At  one  time  I  almost 
thought  they  would  overpower  us ;  but  just  then 
Jim,  who  was  watching  the  proceedings  with 
his  glass  from  the  deck  of  the  Albatross,  and 
saw  exactly  how  matters  stood,  created  a  ju- 
dicious diversion  at  the  exact  right  moment  by 
firing  a  little  grape-shot  plump  into  the  heart 
of  the  grass  huts  of  the  village,  and  bowling 
over  a  roof  or  two  before  the  very  eyes  of  the 
astonished  savages.  They  fell  back  at  once, 
and  began  to  make  signs  of  desiring  a  parley. 
So  we  halted  on  the  spot,  with  the  lady  and 
children  still  carefully  guarded,  and  held  up 
our  handkerchiefs  in  sign  of  truce.  Then  Nas- 
saline, aided  by  our  sailor  who  understood  the 
Kanaka  language,  began  to  palaver  with  them. 


HOT   WORK.  127 

He  told  them  in  plain  and  simple  terms  we 
must  first  be  allowed  to  take  the  lady  and  chil- 
dren in  safety  to  the  Albatross,  and  that  we 
would  afterwards  come  back  to  treat  at  greater 
length  with  their  head  men  as  to  the  Chief's 
safety.  To  this,  after  some  demur,  the  black 
fellows  assented ;  and  we  beckoned  to  Jim  ac- 
cordingly by  a  preconcerted  sign  to  send  the 
boat  ashore  to  us,  to  fetch  off  the  fugitives. 
At  the  same  time  we  retreated  in  military  order, 
in  a  small  hollow  square,  to  the  beach,  still 
taking  good  care  to  protect  in  the  midst  our 
terrified  non-combatants. 

As  for  the  Chief,  he  marched  before  us,  with 
his  hands  tied,  and  his  feet  free,  led  by  a  rope, 
the  ends  of  which  I  held  myself,  with  the  aid  of 
two  of  my  sailors.  A  more  ridiculously  crest- 
fallen or  disappointed  creature  than  that  drunken 
and  conquered  savage  at  that  particular  moment 
it  has  never  yet  been  my  fate  to  light  upon. 

We  reached  the  beach  in  safety,  and  sent 
Mrs.  Macglashin  and  the  children  aboard,  with 


128  HOT   WORK. 

Jack  to  accompany  them.  Then  we  turned  to 
parley  with  the  discomfited  savages.  Jim  kept 
the  thirty-pounder  well  pointed  in  their  direc- 
tion, with  ostentatious  precision,  and  we  made 
them  hold  off  along  the  beach  at  a  convenient 
distance,  where  he  could  rake  them  in  security, 
while  we  ourselves  retained  the  Chief  in  our 
hands,  with  a  pistol  at  his  head,  as  a  gentle 
reminder  that  we  meant  to  stand  no  nonsense. 

After  a  few  minutes'  parley,  conducted  chiefly 
by  our  Kanaka-speaking  sailor,  with  an  occa- 
sional explanation  put  in  by  our  assistant-inter- 
preter, Nassaline,  we  arrived  at  an  understand- 
ing, in  accordance  with  which  we  were  to  re- 
turn them  their  Chief  for  the  time  being,  on 
consideration  of  their  bringing  us  down  to  the 
beach  all  the  Macglashins'  goods,  and  making 
restitution  for  the  sack  of  the  mission-house  in 
dried  cocoa-nut,  the  sole  wealth  of  the  island. 
Those  were  the  terms  for  the  immediate  pres- 
ent, as  a  mere  personal  matter  :  for  the  rest, 
we  gave  the  Chief  clearly  to  understand  that 


HOT    WORK.  129 

we  intended  to  sail  straight  away  with  all  our 
guests  for  Fiji,  there  to  lay  our  complaint  of 
his  conduct  before  the  British  High  Commis- 
sioner in  the  South  Pacific.  We  would  then 
charge  him  with  murder  and  attempted  canni- 
balism, and  with  stirring  up  his  people  to  mas- 
sacre the  other  missionary,  and  the  trader  Free- 
man. We  would  endeavor  to  get  a  gunboat 

| 

sent  to  the  spot,  to  make  official  inquiry  into 
the  nature  of  the  disturbances,  and  to  demand 
satisfaction  on  the  part  of  the  relations  of  the 
murdered  men.  Finally,  we  would  also  lay  be- 
fore the  Commissioner  the  conduct  of  the  French 
labor-vessel,  and  her  kidnaping  skipper,  who 
had  instigated  the  savages  to  their  dastardly 
attack,  and  whom  I  was  strongly  inclined  to 
identify  with  the  captain  from  whose  grip  we 
had  rescued  our  friend  Nassaline.  We  gave 
the  Chief  to  understand,  therefore,  that  he  must 
by  no  means  consider  himself  as  scot  free, 
merely  because  we  let  him  go  unhurt  till  trial 
could  be  instituted  by  the  proper  authorities. 


130  HOT    WORK. 

He  must  answer  hereafter  for  his  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors  to  the  Queen's  representative. 

To  all  of  which  the  penitent  savage  merely 
answered  with  a  sigh  : 

"  Me  make  mistake.  Kill  missionary  by  ac- 
cident. Man  a  oui-oui  tell  me  Queenie  England 
no  care  for  Scotchman,  an'  me  too  much  believe 

him.     Now  Captain  tell  me  Queenie  send  gun- 

* 
boat  for  eat  me  up,  and  kill  all  my  people.    No 

listen  any  more  to  man  a  oui-oui." 

And  then  we  put  off  in  triumph  to  the  Alba- 
tross. The  family  meeting  that  ensued  on 
board  when  Macglashin  stood  once  more  upon 
a  British  deck  with  his  wife  and  children,  I 
won't  attempt  —  rough  sailor  as  I  am  —  to  de- 
scribe :  I  don't  believe  even  the  special  corre- 
spondent of  a  morning  paper  could  do  full  jus- 
tice to  it.  To  see  those  two  lads,  too,  catch 
their  pretty  little  sister  once  more  in  their  arms, 
and  cover  her  with  kisses,  while  she  clung  to 
their  necks  and  cried  and  laughed  alternately, 
was  a  sight  to  do  a  man's  heart  good  for  an- 


HOT    WORK.  131 

other  twelvemonth.  And  as  we  sat  that  same 
evening  round  the  cabin-table  (where  our  Malay 
cook  had  performed  wonders  of  culinary  art  for 
the  occasion),  and  drank  healths  all  round  to 
everybody  concerned  in  this  remarkable  rescue, 
the  toast  that  was  received  with  the  profound- 
est  acclamations  from  every  soul  on  board,  was 
that  of  the  two  brave  boys  whose  courage  and 
skill  had  guided  us  at  last,  as  if  by  a  miracle, 
to  the  recovery  of  all  that  was  nearest  and 
dearest  to  them. 

Indeed,  if  Martin  and  Jack  don't  get  the 
Victoria  Cross  when  we  return  to  England,  I 
shall  have  even  a  lower  opinion  than  ever  be- 
fore of  her  Majesty's  confidential  political  ad- 
visers of  all  creeds  or  parties. 


7 000056016 


